


Rewind For Victory

by Mirrored_Illusions



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, Evil Albus Dumbledore, Evil Death Eaters, Evil Severus Snape, F/M, Family Bonding, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, James Potter Lives, Lily Evans Potter Lives, Manipulative Albus Dumbledore, Minor Character Death, Semi-Explicit Murder, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-20
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-03-21 18:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 35,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13746801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirrored_Illusions/pseuds/Mirrored_Illusions
Summary: Hadrian Potter travels back in time in an attempt to save his parents lives, give his younger self a happy childhood, and make the British Magical World a better place for everyone.





	1. Back To Back Then

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: The Harry Potter universe belongs to J.K. Rowling and various others, none of which is me. I make no profit from this.

Hadrian Potter stood about ten feet outside the Fidelius Ward surrounding the Potter Cottage in Godric’s Hollow. It was a peaceful sight of a small house with candlelight visible through the windows, and what would no doubt be a beautiful and well-kept garden in the summer. At the moment it was covered in Autumn colors, but it still gave a welcoming appearance which made the young man smile slightly.

He had no memory of this place from when he was a toddler except for the lone memory of his parents’ murder and his own attempted murder. His first real memory of the place was when he visited it with Hermione during the Horcrux-Hunt of 1997, on Christmas Eve. He didn't get a chance to really look at his first home, or even try and look for some of his parents' possessions. Even if he had, it wouldn't have mattered. Witches and Wizards had long since stolen anything of even remote value, as he found out later when he finally had the chance to explore his childhood home.

Clothes, furniture, his mother's make-up, his father's shaving kit, various knick-knacks, and just about anything which could be stolen and sold, or kept as a keepsake, had been taken. The only saving grace had been finding out they hadn't really kept anything in the Potter Cottage of any real value. They had moved to the little house very abruptly after multiple attacks on their residential alley off of Diagon Alley. When they'd been attacked by Voldemort they'd barely lived there for a week, and hadn't had a chance to unpack or get much from the main Potter Estate.

Hadrian shook his head, there was no point in remembering these things. If things went well, they wouldn't happen in the first place and baby!Hadrian would grow up with his loving parents instead of being a slave for Dumbledore, the Dursley's, and the British Magical World. He gave another shake to get rid of the mental cobwebs. He hadn't gotten this far to chicken out now.

Taking a deep, comforting breath he stepped over the ward line of the Fidelius Charm and walked over to the step-stones in from of the door. Relief flooded through him as the ward didn't reject him. There had been a small chance it wouldn't allow him through, even if he were able to see the house and its occupants. Before he climbed the two steps, he silently waved his wand in an intricate pattern, then he made a few more wand movements along with about half a dozen words in Latin. The reaction was unfortunately as expected and he performed a number of other spells before he went up the two steps and gave the door three resolute raps with his knuckles.

A couple of minutes later he saw the doorknob move and he steeled himself; this was it. There was no turning back now, he had to go through with the plan.

A man in his very early twenties opened the door just enough so he could see who was on the other side. The man had black, messy hair almost exactly like Hadrian's own, but the face was a little different. Hadrian's cheekbones were higher, giving him a more aristocratic appearance akin to the Black family, but otherwise, it was like looking into his own face. The time traveler took in the man's appearance, just like he mentally made note of the defensively raised wand pointing straight at his midsection.

Before the owner of the house could do more than widen his eyes in shock at his almost doppelganger, Hadrian slowly raised his own wand and swore, "I, Hadrian James Potter, which is my true name, hereby swear I am the only son and child of James Charlus Potter and Lily Jade Potter nee Evans. Furthermore, I swear I am here in the past to change the future for the better and save the lives of my parents and hopefully help make the magical world a better and safer place. May magic judge my words and deem them truthful. So mote it be."

Immediately after he produced the required sparks to prove he still had his magic before he looked expectantly at his father hoping, and inwardly praying, he would be let in to explain himself. Hermione had patiently explained it was extremely important that he proved who he was as quickly and decisively as possible so as to not waste time. Adding the reason for the visit was to both spark their curiosity and to prove he meant them no harm.

James Potter's eyes had gotten even wider behind his black-rimmed glasses, but he mutely allowed him inside. Hadrian noted with satisfaction that even with the oath his father kept his wand pointed directly at him. It was a good move and he had a family to protect. They were in the middle of a war, Voldemort himself wanted the couple dead, and they were under a supposedly safe Fidelius Charm. No one but a select few people should even know where to find them, let alone be able to enter the property.

Upon entering the living room he saw his mother alive for the first time in living memory. The old Dementor-induced recollection of their deaths didn't count, and people were right; she was even more beautiful in real life than in pictures. He was happy to see that her eyes were also the same shade of emerald green as his own, people had been right about that as well.

As his mother opened her mouth to speak he quickly performed the same spells as he had outside, while first putting his forefinger to his lips in the universal sign of silence. Like the outside of the cottage, the inside revealed the same results, and he performed the temporary counterspells. Then nodded, silently telling them they could speak again.

"James?" It was a simple question, but Hadrian had to smile at finally hearing her voice without fear in it.

"Lily-flower, this man just gave a magical oath he's our son from the future and that he's here to save our lives." He both looked and sounded as surprised and skeptical as his wife looked, and honestly, the time traveler couldn't blame either of them in the slightest.

"Please allow me to explain, both why I'm here and why I performed the spells I did." He turned to his father, "I'm sure you recognized them and I assure you I had a good reason for doing it in here."

Both original occupants of the house burst out with quite a few questions at that time, and for a couple of minutes, he allowed it while surreptitiously looking around the cozy room. It was obvious, that while they'd made themselves at home, they hadn't been living there for long, even if it showed clear signs of long-time use. Certain things were clearly older than others and didn't seem to fit with the young couple, and the toys and the child-sized broom were a clear sign a small child was also living there even if he couldn't see his younger self anywhere.

His raised his voice slightly, "Please, calm down!". A few seconds later and they were back to giving him their full attention, even if they clearly expected answers. Then, as if she'd just remembered, Lily Potter directed them all to the comfy-looking couches and called for a house elf named Billy to serve them tea.

Hadrian blinked, he hadn't been aware they'd had an elf. A cat, yes, probably at least one owl as well, but not an elf. Then again, it wasn't really surprising. The Potter Family was a Most Ancient and Most Noble House and like nearly all Houses with one or both of those titles they were incredibly wealthy. He had been aware that the main Potter Estate had about a dozen elves who took care of it and various other Potter properties, but apparently either the newlyweds had been given a house elf or they'd acquired one themselves. Or perhaps it was one of the elves from the main Potter Estate. All four of his grandparents were deceased at this point, so all things Potter belonged to James.

That brought up the question of what had happened to the elf when his parents had been killed. Had Riddle or Pettigrew killed it? Did Dumbledore do something to it? House elves were incredibly loyal to the person or family they were bonded to, and it would take a lot of powerful magic to change their minds. So Billy, even if he had belonged to his grandparents should've done his best to keep Hadrian safe and happy. On second thought, so should all the other elves.

He'd been staring at the thin air a little too long, lost in his own thoughts as suddenly his reveries were interrupted by an abrupt, "Hadrian!". He blinked and gave his mother a sheepish look.

"Sorry, I wasn't aware we had an elf, but nevermind." He obediently took the teacup she indicated and took a sip after checking it discreetly using wandless magic. One could never be too careful. "Long story short, in my past, you were both killed by Tom Riddle aka He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on Halloween, five days from now."

The two of them looked horrified, but he soldiered on before they had a chance to interrupt him with the obvious questions. "Peter Pettigrew is a marked Death Eather and he told his master the secret as soon as he had the chance." He stopped to give them a chance to process the horrible news. In a way, he pitied them, this kind of betrayal was horrible. Pettigrew was a long-time friend of James' and he was supposed to be the safe choice, the one no one would suspect. Instead, Voldemort had reversed the security measure and used him as a spy who then served him their lives on a silver platter.

He gave them a few minutes to digest it, then continued with the next piece of horribles news. "Albus Dumbledore is a highly skilled Legilimence and uses the ability on everyone around him to gain information they won't give him voluntarily. He's fully aware it's illegal to do this, but like so many other crimes he commits he justifies it as it's for 'the greater good'. And yes, Dumbledore has committed a very, very long list of crimes."

Hadrian took another sip, "In other words, anything you've been thinking about at the forefront of your mind while meeting his eyes has been fair game to him. When he's wanted to know something specific, or just if you know something he doesn't, all he has to do is ask a question or make a statement about the topic, make sure he has direct eye contact, and then use Passive Legilimency. Then he can use the information to further his own plans."

Another few minutes passed while his parents tried to process both their impending death and the severe invasion of privacy by someone they had believed to be a great man. Lily was noticeably getting upset and he hoped she would be able to control her temper or this could end badly for all of them. He decided to continue.

"I don't know how long he'd known about Pettigrew being Marked before the Fidelius was cast, but at this point in time, Pettigrew has been a Death Eater for about a year. Dumbledore knew Pettigrew was a traitor and used the Imperius Curse on Sirius Black to make him convince you to change Secret Keepers at the last minute and simply use Sirius as bait. He knew the Magical World would be biased against a Black regardless of his close friendship with a Potter and a FirstGen witch. Dumbledore's plan worked."

Hadrian took another sip of the delicious tea before he resumed his story. "As I said, on Halloween Riddle and Pettigrew will show up at Potter Cottage and first he'll kill James and then he'll kill Lily for refusing to move away so he can kill me."

This time he was unable to go on before his mother interrupted him with a couple of questions.

"Why does he want to kill you? A fifteen-month-old baby isn't a danger to him." Her voice was a little too calm for his comfort levels, meaning she was probably close to exploding on him and he swallowed discreetly. If her temper was anything like his own then he'd be hiding behind his father pretty soon. "And why do you keep calling him 'Riddle'?"

In lieu of a verbal answer to the latter question, he carefully took out his wand again and wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in the air. After giving them a few seconds to read it he waved his wand to rearrange the letters so it spelled I AM LORD VOLDEMORT instead.

"He's not a pureblood like he claims, or rather like he implies, that's why he uses a partial anagram instead of his real name. Too many purebloods, especially the rich Slytherins he wants on his side, are obsessed with ancestry and would immediately know he isn't one of them."

"But he's the heir of Slytherin, only those who are descended from Salazar Slytherin can speak Parseltongue. Everyone knows that." This time it was his father who interjected.

"Yes and no. Tell me dad, what does all the purebloods have in common, and I mean all of the British ones?"

"What?" Not the most intelligent answer, but Hadrian decided to give him a break; he'd gotten too many shocks in the last ten minutes, and this line of questioning wasn't helping.

"You're all related in one way or another, Sirius told me that after I finally met him. If you took an inheritance test at Gringotts, there's an incredibly high chance you'd be able to trace the Potter family all the way back to the Founders. All of them, including Salazar Slytherin."

He ignored the glare from his father. The truth hurt sometimes. "Take the Peverell's for instance, we're descended from them through the youngest brother, Ignotus, while Riddle is descended from Cadmus, the middle brother. Which means we're all distant cousins."

The glare had intensified and his mother didn't look to keen on where this was going either, so he got back on topic. "My point is that yes, at the moment Tom Riddle really is the heir of Slytherin, but he's not a pureblood. His mother, Merope Gaunt, was from the last generation of pureblooded descendants of Slytherin since Antioch didn't have children. Merope used a love potion to ensnare a handsome mundane man into marriage and got pregnant by him. She named the child Tom Marvolo Riddle, after his father and her own father, then she died.

Tom Riddle, Sr. left his wife before his son was born, claiming he'd been 'hoodwinked'. Tom Jr. was raised in a poor non-magical orphanage in London, which probably is at least part of the reason why he became evil. Add in being a supposed FirstGen in a house consisting of mostly prejudiced purebloods and as far as he was concerned everyone was against him. It's no wonder he keeps bragging about being Slytherin's heir, it must've made him feel bloody fantastic to have finally found something that made him 'better' than everyone else."

Hadrian took a deep breath after his speech and then drank some more tea while waiting for his parents' reaction.

James was clearly trying to work his way through everything, probably by trying to remember the family trees and family history he'd been forced to learn as a child, but Lily was clearly following the breadcrumbs he had left and had come to a conclusion as she first studied her husband and then her time traveling son. As she met his eyes, hers narrowed.

"You're saying when You-Know-Who is killed, James becomes the new heir of Slytherin." Beside her, James yelped in surprise.

"No, no, no. NO! I'm *not* next in line to become the next dark lord!" Both of the other two occupants in the room glared at him, and after getting two sets of upset green eyes directed at him he inched back a little.

The married couple got into a short argument before Hadrian managed to stop them by whistling loudly.

"Calm down, dad. It doesn't make you evil. Besides, you can only claim the title if you're a Parselmouth and I'm pretty certain you're not."

James Potter collapsed into the cushions in relief and smiled in triumph first at his wife and then at his adult son.

"No, I can't talk to snakes. Thank Merlin. So it will have to go back to being idle."

A little offended at the predictable comment he decided to defend himself and other beast speakers. "I'm a Parselmouth."

Both of his parents suddenly sat up straight and nearly yelled in unison, "WHAT?".

A little more calmly, James added, "You can't be, even if we're descended from Slytherin that ability doesn't run in the Potter family. No one I know of in the family tree has it, and someone would've said something if it existed somewhere down the line. Secrets don't really stay secret for long, and it would've come out and been used against me or some other Potter if anyone knew."

"True enough, but." And Hadrian mentally went through some of the things Hermione had made sure he'd memorize. "Inbreeding runs rampant in the pureblood families and additional magical talents become dormant because of it. Take the Black family, for instance, they used to be known for having at least one Metamorphmagi per generation. But when Nymphadora Tonks was born a few years ago she was the first one in centuries to have the gift. Her father is a FirstGen. I can talk to snakes and my mother is a FirstGen."

He looked his father straight in the eye, "Do you think it's a coincidence that both gifts reappeared when new blood was added?"

James frowned behind his spectacles. "Such talents have been known to come back if someone marries purebloods from other countries, and yes also if they marry muggleborns, or even certain half-bloods if they're not closely related. But few people travel out of the country to find spouses nowadays. They're too afraid someone will claim to be a pureblood when they're not, and the mere thought of 'sullying' their family with something like that is unthinkable."

He decided to see if they'd be willing to trust him a little further, and so he took a big chance.

"Dumbledore believed or at least said he believed, that I wasn't born with the ability but rather that Riddle somehow transferred it to me when he failed to kill me with the Killing Curse. Would you be willing to bring baby Hadrian in here so I can try talking to him in Parseltongue?"

He got a slightly odd look from both of them for the comment, and after some silent communication between his parents, his mother replied. "You-Know-Who used the Killing Curse on you and you *survived*? Did anything turn out right after we died?"

Hadrian sighed, those questions were unavoidable, but he didn't have to like it. "Not really, but I'll explain it later. Could you please get baby Hadrian? I'd really like to know if my gift is natural or not. Please?" He added some mild puppy eyes at the end. He really did want to know. From what little he'd been able to find, you were either born a Parseltongue or you were not. There was no way to learn the language or to somehow have the ability transferred. As a result, Dumbledore was either lying like he'd done with so many other things, or he genuinely didn't know and just said what he thought would make Hadrian cooperate better.

His mother threw up a Muffliato Charm, much to Hadrian's amusement. Making him wonder if Snape had taught her the charm while they were still friends, or if she'd learned it from someone else. It didn't matter, so while his parents had a private discussion behind the buzzing sound he went back to studying the living room. There were a number of pictures on all four of the walls, including a few he was certain were of his grandparents on his mother's side. He recognized the couple in them from some of the picture frames he'd had to dust at the Dursley's during his entire childhood.

There was also a second, older couple in some of the frames. As the man in the magical photographs had the familiar Potter hair it was pretty obvious who he was. The woman beside him also had jet black hair, but unlike the man beside her, who had hazel eyes, hers were the familiar grey of the Black family. Hadrian smiled sadly, it was the first time he had seen pictures of his paternal grandparents. While he didn't know much about them, there was no doubt in his mind that the couple in those pictures were Charlus Potter and his wife Dorea Potter nee Black.

Subconsciously he had moved closer to get a better look at both sets of grandparents. While both had a formal picture each, most were clearly snapshots showing the elder generation in more relaxed settings and smiling at the camera. One picture, further away from the others, was an informal family portrait of Charlus, Dorea, Carlyle, and Marigold, with James and Lily in the front holding what appeared to be a five-to-eight-month-old Hadrian. He hadn't had the foggiest idea that this photograph existed. If he had, he'd have moved Heaven and Earth to find it.

He barely noticed his mother leave the room, presumably to get her child, but he did detect his father coming to stand next to him. For a little while, they both studied the occupants of the photographs.

"You seem much too surprised and happy to see these pictures, son."

Hadrian turned to make eye-contact with his father as he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps on the stairs, and the happy baby talk of a small child and his mother cooing back. The sight of them walking through the door made him smile. In his peripheral view, he saw his father reflexively smile as well. It also gave him a reprieve from answering James' question.

It was clear what their decision had been and Hadrian was happy, he finally had the chance to find out for certain if his ability was natural or if it had been transferred to him via the cursed scar. Baby Hadrian appeared to be happy and well cared for. His clothes were fitting and looked comfortable. The child had a small plush toy in one hand and a handful of long auburn hair in the other.

Lily Potter brought her son to the sofa rather than over to her husband and time-traveling son, and the two took the hint and walked back over. James sat down beside his young son and took the toy when the child offered it to him while speaking softly to him. Lily fussed with the child, trying to hide her nervousness of what was about to happen.

Hadrian chose to kneel in front of his younger self rather than sit beside them. This way it would hopefully make his parents feel more relaxed. He gave the boy his full attention and smiled, getting a wide smile back.

"§Hello, Hadrian. My name is alssso Hadrian. Can you underssstand me?§" He hissed in Parseltongue, hoping the child would reply in kind. In his peripheral view, he saw his parents tense at the clear sign of something most magicals considered an obvious sign of a dark wizard or witch.

"§'ello!§" The boy gurgled back in Parseltongue, and the older Hadrian let out the breath he'd been holding and his body relaxed in relief. His parents were not as happy though, but it didn't matter. He was too relieved to know the ability was hereditary rather than something he'd gotten from Tom Riddle.


	2. I'll Explain This If You Explain That

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all who have either followed this story or given kudos. A special thank you to those who have left a review. :)

Baby Hadrian and his future counterpart had a short exchange in the sibilant language before their parents had enough and demanded they switch back to normal English.

“My apologies,” the elder one replied while the younger one simply gurgled happily at his mother. “I've spent so much time either believing the ability was transferred from the Dark Tosser who killed my parents or with the uncertainty of how I'd gotten it that I just wanted to enjoy it for once. Even if it was only a light conversation with a toddler who has a limited vocabulary. I didn't mean to scare or alarm you.”

James and Lily accepted the apology a little shakily but politely asked him to refrain from doing it again without their consent. Hadrian, not wanting to alienate his parents, readily agreed but added.

“Back in my time, after the Second Blood War ended, I made sure to learn as much as possible about both Parseltongue and what it really means to be a Parselmouth. To my surprise, it turned out there are countries in the world where people with the ability are highly revered and sought after. Countries such as Greece and India, and some countries in South America.

“The first person in recorded history who had the ability was a healer. He was later named as a Greek god, one of Apollo's sons. His name was Asclepius, and he later became known by a symbol of a rod wreathed with a snake. A symbol we now associate with healing and medicine. In Greece, snakes were sacred beings of wisdom, healing, and resurrection. According to the myth a snake gave Asclepius secret knowledge in return for kindness rendered.

“Over the generations, anyone with the Parselmouth capability in Greece was trained in Healing, even if they were not particularly skilled in the field. The reason for it was because any spell cast in the serpent language is amplified due to the intent of the caster and the magical language. The language itself is also well-matched to improve health.

“In the same vein, all Parselmouths are sought after by people dealing with snakes, certain reptiles, and in some cases dragons. Obviously, this is because we can speak directly to the animals and therefore get their cooperation more easily by explaining what we want to happen. This doesn't always work since they are in no way forced to do our bidding. They are also much simpler than humans and generally only want food, warmth, and safety. However, if you can supply them with all three they are much more inclined to comply with whatever you want from them.

Hadrian gave them a serious look but tempered it with a small smile. “Personally, I ended up going for the third option when I finally found out the Potter's used to be legendary for creating and maintaining Wards. Sealing a Ward with Parseltongue, and, of course, using it to cast most if not all the spells, makes it pretty much unbreakable. Even if you are one of the rare people who can speak the language, you'd still need to know the specific counters in order to undo them. This happened at a time of turmoil after the Second Blood War, so it made people very eager to protect their homes. Consequently, my newfound application of a previously feared ability, coupled with warding, made me very rich, very fast."

Truthfully, the reason for that wasn't just the latest Blood War, but he'd get back to that later. There was a lot of information and that particular bomb could wait. Right now he needed to deal with the upcoming Halloween Incident and make sure his parents understood the importance of baby Hadrian learning about the significance of his gift. Parseltongue didn't make anyone evil, but killing or ostracizing everyone with the ability was akin to shooting themselves in the foot. Or, since they were in the magical world, hexing themselves in the foot without knowing basic magical first aid.

"You should also know that the main reason Potter Manor hasn't been breached is due to the Parselmagic on the building, the grounds, and the surrounding area. They were raised by Kelton Potter sometime between 1194 and 1198. Because of Salazar Slytherin, this wasn't announced to anyone outside of the Potter Family, and it was restricted information even within the family. Parselmouths have been rare in the Family and this is directly responsible for how it's been kept a secret for so long. Only the Head of the Family and his direct Heir was told for centuries. It was verbally told from father to son, rather than reading it from a book or scroll, and because of this, the information was lost in 1648 when the Head of the Family and his Heir were both killed on the same day. The Heir's oldest son was only eight at the time and hadn't been told, as a result, the knowledge was lost."

"If this knowledge was lost," James questioned, "Then how do you know?"

Hadrian smiled sadly, "My wife craved knowledge the way other people crave air. She read through the Potter and Black Libraries and came across a scroll with some of the information. Most of it was written in Parselscript, but there was enough in Old Latin for her to get the gist of what it was. Most of the Old Latin was simply a list of who had known and when they had been told. She turned it over to me."

Lily Potter gave him a sympathetic look and asked, a little tentatively, "We're sorry for your loss?"

"Thank you. She was hit by a terrible curse we were unable to find the counter-curse for, and she ended up dying slowly and very painfully. Going back in time to undo Dumbledore's manipulations was her idea."

His parents looked shocked and saddened by the news, but everyone has a reason for doing things. This was his. Well, it was one of his reasons. They had worked together and Hermione had sketched out an elaborate plan, spanning several years. When they'd finished, she'd made him memorize it all. The ritual he'd used was a one-way trip, meaning he was stuck in the past and had to live out the rest of his life here rather than returning to the future. Not that it would've mattered if he'd been able to go back, Hermione would've still been dead and Hadrian would've been without the love of his life.

The rules of time travel stated that you could go back to the past, but it would cause the time stream to split, and therefore create a new timeline running parallel with the original one. In other words, if he'd been able to travel forward in time to where he left, he'd arrive in an alternate future caused by his actions in the past. Meanwhile, his original timeline would be intact but Hermione would still be dead and no version of himself would be there since he'd gone back in time.

Magical Time-Turners somehow managed to circumvent this since two versions of the same person could exist simultaneously without the universe trying to tear one of them apart. Hermione had theorized that the reason for this was that you needed to stay for somewhere between 24 and 48 hours before the Universe noticed, and Time-Turners only allowed you to go back eight hours at the most, preferably two hours or less, and you couldn't return twice in the same time period. She hadn't known what would happen if three or four versions of the same person existed at once, but both Professor McGonagall and the Unspeakables she'd later discussed the topic with had all believed the ramifications would've been catastrophic.

But he didn't want to talk about his wife's terrible demise or the improbability of getting his version of her back. She was dead in the future, but here in the past she was very much alive, and if he had anything to say about it she, and his younger self, would have a much brighter and safer future than their original selves had to go through. There was too much at stake for him to fail.

"I read through the scroll and the ward schematics. They were pretty advanced for the time period and included some things I hadn't seen before or after I read the schematics. Over the years I updated them with various new wards and other defensive and offensive magic I came across. Eventually, I had to take everything down and re-do them from scratch because it was too much of a patchwork job, but the end result was bloody brilliant."

The patchwork job was only part of the reason, the other half was that he wanted to perform all the spells with the Elder Wand. He only told his wife that he didn't destroy the Wand of Destiny and he kept it well hidden from everyone. It was imperative that the few people who knew about it believed it had been destroyed so no one would come after him or his family in the hope of gaining control of it. He didn't know how people found out he had it, but, in the end, he had publicly destroyed a replica of it and used his Holly and Phoenix Feather Wand to burn the pieces to ashes. The scene had caused a major outcry and a public backlash, but he'd ignored it. The media and the magical population was fickle at best and in time he'd be their hero once again.

In the Magical World, the Tale of the Three Brothers had been considered to be nothing more than a children's story by most people. Xenophilius Lovegood had been one of the few people who believed in the Deathly Hallows, and even he didn't know where any of them could be found. Hadrian had inherited the Cloak of Invisibility so it was rightfully his, he'd won the Resurrection Stone by somehow defeating Voldemort as a toddler and it had been reinforced several times after that making the Resurrection Stone legally his along with everything else that once belonged to Tom Riddle and the Gaunt Family, and he had won the Elder Wand's loyalty from Draco Malfoy who had disarmed Albus Dumbledore - its previous owner. By the Inheritance Laws, the Elder Wand was his since it should've been passed down through the generations rather than for people to keep murdering and stealing it.

What it all came down to was that he was the rightful owner of all of the Deathly Hallows and therefore the Master of Death. It could be argued that now that he was in the past and his father owned the original version of the Cloak he couldn't be the proper owner. Particularly since Dumbledore had the Wand and the Stone was still a Horcrux. Well, to be fair, the actual Stone had never been a Horcrux, it had been the ring it was attached to. The latter two he could acquire, but he couldn't take the Cloak from his father. Hopefully, the two objects were able to co-exist without their power being diminished. But he did intend to combine the two Wands and the two Stones.

On the bright side, no one had connected his Cloak with the Peverell Cloak of Invisibility, nor did anyone know he'd ever been in possession of the Resurrection Stone. Ron had known, of course, but in a fit of paranoia after the Battle of Hogwarts, he obliviated all knowledge of the Deathly Hallows from the mind of his fair-weather friend. He'd proven too many times he would leave his friends behind if his jealousy overtook him or things got too hard, and, like Hagrid, he couldn't really be trusted with keeping secrets. It was a bitter realization, but one that had been coming for years. When he'd gone back to the past they'd still been on friendly terms, even if it was more of an acquaintance than anything else.

The Weasley family hadn't taken it well when he'd chosen not to get back together with Ginny after the War, and Ron and Hermione hadn't really managed to get into a relationship, to begin with. Their personalities and expectations for the future hadn't meshed at all. Ron had expected to get married right away and for Hermione to stay at home popping out a lot of babies while he worked. Hermione had wanted to finish her education and get a good job afterward. After a major blow-up at the Burrow, their pseudo-relationship and their friendship had shattered, and Hermione had convinced Hadrian to go to Australia with her to find her parents. By the time they got back a year and a half later, Ron had gotten married to Lavender Brown and they were expecting their first child. Ginny had still had her sights on Hadrian but was in a relationship with some pureblood wizard more than a decade her senior.

It hadn't mattered. Traveling alone with Hermione had caused long-buried feelings for his best female friend to re-surface and it hadn't taken long for them to become a couple. It hadn't been easy, but they had both been invested in making it work. Hermione thrived the most when she was reading and researching while Hadrian was a man of action and def-defying stunts both with a wand and on a broom, but they had made it work because they wanted it to work. And they had been so happy together, despite everything. In the end, they'd lost contact with most of the Weasley's and only remained acquainted with Ron and George.

"The last Parselmouth before me was Ambrose Potter who died in 1612. However, none of them ever updated the Parselwards on the Potter Mansion, and simply created regular wards on any new properties the family acquired."

At this point, Lily interjected with a question of her own, "If Riddle was able to get through all the wards on this cottage, including the Fidelius Charm Dumbledore cast, does that mean there are no Parselwards on it?"

Hadrian nodded, "Correct. This cottage was purchased by a cadet branch back in the 1860's and while it does have some great wards it's nothing compared to the wards on the properties bought by the main branch."

He turned towards his father, "This cottage has belonged to the main branch since 1942, do you know why it wasn't upgraded?"

"Back then the war against Grindelwald was still going strong and all of the remaining Potter Cadet Branches were part of the voluntary forces fighting against him. Over a three year period, most of them were killed. Due to the unrest in Europe and the number of properties belonging to the family some of them fell by the wayside. Especially since they were all turned over to the main branch as the Cadet Branches feel in the war again Grindelwald. There simply were not enough people to go from estate to estate to check and upgrade the warding schemes aside from reconfiguring them to the head of the family. Then the war against You-Know heated up and the rest of the family was killed until your mother and I was the only ones left. To be honest, I'm not sure why nothing was done before we moved in here, other than Dumbledore stating it was safe."

Hadrian barely managed to not roll his eyes. Why was he not surprised that the old coot was responsible for the lack of wards on his family's residence? He was willing to bet a sizable amount of money that Dumbledore had somehow managed to remove some of the better wards on the cottage to make it easier for Riddle to force his way in to kill the Potter's after he'd gotten access to the Fidelius. Judging by the way his father was talking he hadn't taken over the wards on the cottage, simply leaving his family's safety in Dumbledore's corrupt hands.

"So, what you're saying is that not only did you allow Albus Dumbledore to convince you to move into a house with limited protections when you knew full well that Potter Manor has never been breached in the entirety of its history, but you also completely trusted Albus Dumbledore to check and upgrade the wards on a Potter property, and then you allowed him to cast the Fidelius Charm on the cottage with Peter Pettigrew as the Secret Keeper. At no point did either of you check the wards yourself. This being the middle of a major War it didn't occur to either of you to err on the side of paranoia and make Pettigrew swear an Oath to not reveal the location to anyone without your consent?"

Both of his parents stared incredulously at him for a few moments before his mother spoke, "Albus is a great wizard and we trust him. Or we trusted him until you came along. Why wouldn't we believe him when he told us it was safe for us to stay here?"

"Because the Potter Family is world renowned for their wards." He looked directly at his father, "I know you chose not to follow the family tradition and become a ward specialist, but still, I'm sure your father and other family members taught you at least some of the trade. Enough to keep the knowledge alive. You should've used that knowledge to keep your family hideout secure and not just trusted an outsider, no matter how much you might like or respect them. By reading the warding journals going back centuries, I know it's standard for a Potter to make anyone, even family members, who cast any kind of security or wards on something Potter owned to swear an oath to not betray the family. So why didn't you make Dumbledore and Pettigrew swear an oath?"

That had been bugging him ever since he found a passage about the standard security measures in his great-great-great-grandfathers warding journal. Every Head of the Family had one, even his father. James Potter's journal had been pretty short, and had, for the most part, included prank material reworked as safety measures. It was innovative and definitely outside the box, and if nurtured properly could've been highly effective. It had given him some great ideas for his own warding schemes.

During the process, he had ended up writing an entirely new book on Potter Wards. He'd taken all of the family's warding journals, not just for the Head of House, but any Potter who had written down anything which would be helpful in warding a building or property, and gone through everything. Then he'd sorted the wards by category, alphabetized each category, made a proper index at the beginning, a list of all Potter properties and which wards were on each of them, and a registry (person who added the ward(s), year, language, etc) at the end to easier find what you were looking for. Hermione had added a lot of details, including a basic outline at the beginning of the Book to show the bare minimum a basic ward needed to incorporate, and a spell which connected all family journals, deeds, properties, and legal documents to the book as long as it was signed by a member of the main Branch, magically updating it whenever something new was added.

The same thing was done when a new property was acquired. The book would list which wards were already there and when new ones were added the book reflected the change. This only included the Main Branch, but since Hadrian was the only one left when he wrote the book, it didn't really matter. Over the years the book had quite literally been a life saver, particularly since one of the charms Hermione had added was one which alerted him when something needed to be redone or upgraded to maintain everything properly. He'd never gotten around to sell anything, and since Sirius had fallen through the Veil he'd inherited all of the Black Estate as well. Adding even more properties, including Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. When Hermione had remembered that she'd promptly made sure their warding schemes had been added to the Book. It was a good thing the Book was magical or it would've been bloody gigantic. More than a millennium's worth of journals from two families added up to a lot of information.

Hermione being Hermione had adjusted the procedure, as far as it was possible, with other subjects. An index of all of their books and which libraries they were in, had been on the top of the list to nobody's surprise. The project had taken decades to complete since she kept getting sidetracked by reading the books, trying out various spells, and, of course, attending to her own life. It had pretty much been her own personal heaven and Hadrian had simply left her to it, just making sure she took proper breaks and spent time with the family.

While Hadrian's mind had been wandering, his parents had been struggling to find a reply that didn't amount to 'we blindly trusted Dumbledore'. "I'm sorry, Hadrian. I can't explain why we didn't at the very least make them swear an oath to keeps us safe. Because you're right, that has been drilled into my mind since I was a child and it should've been instinctive, but somehow it wasn't done. It never even crossed my mind until now."

A pensive Lily added, "You think Dumbledore did something to us, or at least to James. You mentioned earlier that he used the Imperius Curse on Sirius to change Secret Keepers, do you think he did the same to us? Or do you think he used something else?"

"More likely than not he used Memory Modification Spells in combination with Legilimancy. My wife began studying both Legilimancy and Occlumency a few years after the Second Blood War when she discovered a book on the subject in the Potter Library. Years later she found another book on the Mind Arts in the Black Library describing morally ambiguous ways of using the skill, and also highly illegal ways of taking advantage of people's stray thoughts and how to get people to think about something they wouldn't verbalize. When we compared what was in the book with Dumbledore's behavior towards me and other people over the years there was an extremely high similarity."

While they had half-way been expecting it because of how Dumbledore seemed to know a lot more than he should and then combined it with his long-time reputation of knowing just about everything that was going on, the result had been unsurprising, but it had still hurt to essentially have it confirmed. The man had been hailed as the Leader of the Light and all things good for so long and then finding it's based on basically mind-raping people on a regular basis and clearly not having any moral qualms about it...

"Which reminds me, the two of you need to learn the Mind Arts - particularly Occlumency. It not only protects your mind from Legilimency attacks but it also improves your memory recall."

His mother gave him a reassuring smile, "I already know Occlumency. A childhood friend and I learned it together back in our third year, mostly for the memory retention. He found a mention of it in a book his mother gave him and convinced her to borrow a book from her family library on the Mind Arts he could study. We studied it carefully from the end of the year and regularly practiced it."

Hadrian noticed his father slightly scowling at the mention of the childhood friend, which meant it could only be one person she was referring to. It added up. "You and Snape learned Occlumency together?"

"Yes. You've met Severus?" Her green eyes widened and she smiled slightly.

"Yes. He was the Potions Professor and Head of Slytherin." Try as he might, he couldn't keep all of the bitterness out of his voice and both of his parents noticed. Only his father seemed to approve of his dislike of their old classmate. His mother appeared conflicted.

Rather than allow this to become a drawn-out Q&A side session, he simply added, "Snape is a hypocritical bastard who proceeded to spend about a decade and a half deliberately ruining peoples chances of passing Potions. He systematically sabotaged the students in his class by deliberately frightening them in various ways. One of his favorite ways was to stand behind them during crucial points of the brewing process and breathe down their necks, and when they failed he gleefully gave them a zero for the day, in addition to taking points and/or assigning detention. This directly caused there to be fewer potions masters, Aurors, and Healers. To mentioned a few. The few who did pass were mostly Slytherins and they were then allowed into the NEWT class. Everyone else either had to get private lessons during the Summer or try for another profession.

"And that's ignoring his part in your murder and the attempted murder on me. His consistent bullying of all non-Slytherins, him deliberately targeting me because of you." Here he made eye-contact with his father, "And him using his Legilimency to mind-rape just about everyone, just because he could, and probably sharing what he learned with both Dumbledore and his fellow terrorists."

Hadrian drew a deep breath to calm himself down. He hadn't intended to talk about Snape so soon. Crap. His parents were looking upset and baby!Hadrian was getting fussy because of the loud voice. A second deep breath, and a third. He could do this. He could stop Snape, Dumbledore, and all the other bloody idiots who had ruined Magical Britain. He just needed to keep calm, be reasonable, and get it done.


	3. Permanent Solutions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who has followed this story, given kudos, or written a review. :)
> 
> I'm not really happy with this chapter, but I'm tired of editing it. So here you go...

Hadrian took another deep, calming breath before he made eye-contact with his mother again. "I'm sorry, mum. I know he was your best friend for many years and that he was the one who introduced you to magic, but he truly is a terrible person and he can't be redeemed. More importantly; he doesn't *want* to adjust his attitude. Even when he was supposedly teaching at Hogwarts, he was openly prejudiced against any non-Slytherins. A fact he was well-known for both throughout the school and outside of it. This behavior was at least partially due to Dad and his friends bullying him during your time at Hogwarts. He specifically targeted Gryffindors in a petty attempt to get back at them.   
  
"His favored targets in my year were Neville Longbottom and me. I know Dumbledore like to claim otherwise, but he's evil through and through. He won't change, and Dumbledore won't rein him in. All he does is claim Snape has his full confidence and, as he's a spy, he needs to act the part. Completely ignoring that a spy is supposed to be invisible or at least not stand out, particularly not in a negative way. Then he'd only give Snape a light slap on the wrist before allowing him to go straight back to what he's been doing all along. At the same time, he ignored Snape's revenge on whoever reported him in the first place.  
  
"As if that wasn't enough, he sexually abused all the red-headed witches in the school from Third Year and up, pretending they were you. If there was a shortage of redheads he'd substitute them for blondes or girls with light brown hair. He force-fed them two self-invented potions, one which made them look even more like you and one that made them comply with his every sexual desire. A glamour on the blondes and brunettes made them look like redheads. Once he was finished he'd repair any damage done to them, and in some cases it was extensive, then he'd modify their memories so they would believe they'd simply attended detention. Any residual pain resulting from the rapes were simply ignored as a result of Snape's spellwork or cleaning cauldrons or some such."  
  
In front of him, Lily Potter lowered her horrified green eyes as she bent her head down and fussed with her young child. Beside her, James appeared as if he couldn't decide if he was as horrified by the news as his wife or if his bullying of the man was somehow justified by Snape's later actions. After a short time, she raised her head again, "You intend to kill Severus and Dumbledore. That's how you're going to change the Magical World." It was said with a sad apprehension and finality.  
  
"Yes. Them and many others on all sides of the conflict." He could've lied to give them plausible deniability for when someone inevitably asked them about the situation, or he could've sugar-coated the truth, but they deserved better. They deserved the truth and not some Dumbledore-like half-truth or a deliberately wrong implication. "Tom Riddle is right about a few things, but the one thing we definitely agree on is that Albus 'For the Greater Good' Dumbledore needs to die. The sooner the better for everyone. He is a perfect example of the idiom 'do as I say, not as I do'.  
  
"But before that happy moment, many others need to be removed so the right people can fill the power vacuum, and not any of Voldemort's lackey's, a Ministry stooge, or, heaven forbid, another manipulative and destructive person like Dumbledore. The British Magical World need a good leader, someone who is innovative and not afraid to move forward. Someone who can make sure we all learn about the mundane world and make sure we're all capable of moving seamlessly between the magical and the non-magical world. We need change and we need it desperately."  
  
So much for Hermione's carefully made plan for this meeting. Apparently, adding another two Potter's to the mix caused an even lesser chance of a plan going smoothly. At least, Harry was used to rolling with the punches. So while his parents had another discussion behind the buzzing charm he silently went over the list of people he and Hermione had agreed needed to die as soon as possible. Dumbledore, Snape, and Lucius Malfoy were the top three. Other main targets were Cornelius Fudge, Dolores Umbridge, Peter Pettigrew, anyone with the Dark Mark, all known Voldemort sympathizers, and any Ministry employees who chose to follow the new regime in his time without even trying to fight it. Incidentally, most of the people on the list were purebloods, and they were all either rich, politically powerful, or both.  
  
They'd discussed for weeks whether or not Minerva McGonagall deserved to be on the hit list or not, or if she just needed to be convinced to change jobs or retire. In the end, it all depended on how loyal she was to Dumbledore and his ideology. If she could break free, then she might be worth keeping as a professor but not as Head of Gryffindor House or as Deputy Headmistress. She was 46 years old in 1981, changing careers shouldn't be that difficult. Particularly when you considered that magicals usually worked until they were over a hundred years old and she'd taught quite a few people in her time at the school. Someone ought to be willing to give her a new job. By the time the old manipulator had allowed himself to be killed he'd been over 150.  
  
It was strange how so many people allowed themselves to wither and die long before their time. If you kept your mind and body in shape you could live to become over 200 years old. There were records of magical people who had lived past 300 without any magical help such as a Philosopher's Stone or other ways of cheating death. Witches were fertile until they reached their 80's, although few had children after 40 due to usually getting married straight out of Hogwarts. Yet, the British Magical World had chosen to become lazy and dependant on a small piece of wood to get things done. Magical people were, on average, 110 when they died. Exercising was a foreign concept unless you played Quidditch, were an Auror, or were on the dueling circuit. The Mundane World and all of its innovations were things to avoid and fear, instead of embrace, incorporate, and reverse engineer magical versions of.  
  
Another thing that needed to change was the way Hogwarts was run; most of the faculty had at least two full-time jobs and as a result was unable to do either of them well. All four Heads of House taught a core subject, and in addition, McGonagall was also Deputy Headmistress. Dumbledore was Headmaster, and he was also Chief Warlock of the Wizengamot, and Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards. Dumbledore's three jobs added extra work to McGonagall's already heavy workload. Interestingly, the Hogwarts by-laws stated quite clearly that the main focus of any member of the faculty had to be the school and its students. Having a job or other time-consuming responsibilities outside of Hogwarts was grounds for immediate termination. It also included a monetary penalty, paid directly to the school.  
  
Again, this was a problem caused by Albus Dumbledore. Or rather, he'd made it worse. The Heads of House had taught a core subject for nearly two centuries at that point, in an attempt to save money. Prior to his appointment as a professor of Transfiguration, no member of the faculty had had a job outside of the school. He'd been given special permission to serve as Chief Warlock, and later on, after he became Deputy Headmaster, he'd been given another special permission to also serve as Supreme Mugwump.   
  
The latter was the most baffling, as the Supreme Mugwump was supposed to travel a lot and make sure everyone followed the laws of the ICW. Which, ironically, Magical Britain didn't. He was also supposed to attend quite a few meetings all over the world throughout the calendar year. None of which he did, except for about a month during the Summer. Hadrian shook his head in an attempt to clear it.  
  
Publicly Dumbledore pretended to be all about change and welcoming the FirstGens, but it was only a facade unless they were useful to him. Behind the scenes he was pulling strings to stop anything he didn't want; laws, the ability for FirstGens and their children to advance in their society, the Hogwarts curriculum being updated, mundane subjects being included again, a properly updated and re-named Muggle Studies class being added to the core classes, and so on and so forth. The mundane raised knew about surveillance and at least generally about technology depending on how much they'd integrated into Magical Society and how much they'd abandoned their roots. They also knew what it could do, but the magic-raised were clueless. It was a miracle they hadn't exposed magic earlier than they had.  
  
"Hadrian!" The time traveler blinked at his mother's second sudden exclamation. He needed to stop getting lost in his own thoughts and pay better attention to his parents.  
  
"Sorry, mum."  
  
"Do you have proof of Severus' crimes? Or the crimes of Dumbledore or any of the others you intend to kill?" Hadrian frowned, she was taking this a lot more calmly than he'd expected. They were both unexpectantly calm. He could relate in a way. They had grown up during Voldemort's first rise to power so death and murder wouldn't be unfamiliar to them, while Hadrian had grown up during the second. The major difference was that his parents had had a proper support system, their families, for most of that time, while Hadrian only had abusive relatives and a manipulative and secretive Magical Guardian who hadn't even had the decency to inform him of that fact. Not even when he knew he was dying. His parents had also joined the war effort of their own volition, more or less.  
  
Harry and Hermione had suspected James had been drawn into the conflict by Dumbledore because of how much gold and influence the Potter's had, and then when Lily had finally given him a chance and they'd become a couple Dumbledore had no doubt used her status as a FirstGen as leverage to keep them both on his side as a part of the Order of the Phoenix. It was a smart move, one that had paid dividends after Trelawney gave her prophecy.  
  
"Yes, but I didn't bring it with me." That was his first blatant lie. "Snape had a series of diaries, separated by subject, where he wrote down everything from ideas for his potions, the names and crimes of his fellow Death Eaters, which students he'd raped and other information related to them, information about his students gathered for blackmail purposes, which orders he'd gotten from Riddle and Dumbledore, and so and so forth. And let me tell you, the orders from the two Dark Lords weren't really that different, nor was the information they both wanted.  
  
"Both Riddle and Dumbledore wanted to rule Magical Britain, but their methods of achieving it are wildly different. Riddle, of course, is trying to rule the country through fear and intimidation. Dumbledore, on the other hand, is attempting to achieve it by pulling the strings mostly behind the scenes while appearing as the all-powerful and friendly but slightly dotty grandfather. Sad thing is, too many people are buying into both ideals. There's no real third option unless you count the incompetent Ministry. I'm hoping by removing the most powerful players and their backers on all sides of the conflict cooler heads will prevail and create a better society for everyone and not just the privileged few."  
  
Their chosen way of fixing things could be seen as evil, truthfully it was evil or at best morally ambiguous, but Hadrian didn't plan on going into politics. Just the thought of trying to herd the magical sheeple was enough to give him a headache. Hermione had called it a surgical strike to remove the metaphorical cancer from their society. Dumbledore and his sycophants, Riddle and his terrorists, and the Ministry of Magic and its mainly incompetent employees were problems who needed to be permanently removed. Hopefully, whoever took over would choose to represent the entirety of their society and not just the wealthy purebloods and their agendas. Being a pureblood didn't make you evil, but there was a high chance you would grow up to become an entitled prat who suppressed most of your fellow magicians.  
  
It also caused them to look down on anyone who had not grown up in the magical world, and consequently, they pitied mundane people for not having magic. They tried to separate the magical children from their non-magical family while at the same time treating them as if they were worth less than those who grew up in the isolated enclaves. Completely missing the point where the mundane had so many other great things. Great things they could've had as well if they'd known about them in the first place.  
  
The sad thing was, too many FirstGens had bought into this and immersed themselves completely in the newly discovered world and adapting the unfortunate attitude towards their families. Oh, they'd brought smaller things with them across the invisible 'border', but on the whole, they'd left their old life behind. Only the ones who didn't have powerful backers went back and tried to make it in the mundane world, but without a formal education it was difficult to obtain a good job and live a balanced life between the two parts of themselves.  
  
"Why killing? Why not send them to Azkaban?"  
  
"Because it isn't as secure as people like to think. The prisoners can be bailed out, or rather someone could pay off the Minister, to get them out of there. In the Summer of 1993, Sirius managed to escape -."  
  
That was as far as Hadrian got before he was interrupted by his father's shocked interjection, "What? Why was Sirius in Azkaban?" James' hazel eyes were wide behind his round, black glasses.  
  
"He was thrown in prison for supposedly betraying us to Riddle. According to the Daily Prophet, he was also Riddle's right-hand wizard and got tired of pretending to be light. Our murders were apparently his big coming-out-as-Dark party. Dumbledore ensured he didn't get a trial. He also made sure Sirius wasn't interrogated, instead, he was unceremoniously thrown into a cell in Azkaban and left there to rot."  
  
"What about Mr. and Mrs. Black? Didn't they do anything to help their son?" Even as he said it, James looked dubious.  
  
"Of course not. The Black family was all Dark and despite knowing that Sirius wasn't they probably saw it as vindication for his public rebellion to be locked up for a crime he didn't commit. Maybe they wanted their fellow Dark Wizards to believe he had been a spy for the Dark side all along. Or maybe they blamed him for the death of their Master. Whatever their reason, he was left there to rot by everyone, including his family, Remus Lupin, and Dumbledore. By the looks of it, it didn't seem to matter to Orion and Walburga Black that Sirius' incarceration effectively meant the end of the Black Family, at least in the male line. After all, Regulus was already dead and had no wife or issue, and with Sirius locked away there was no one else. The next in line to inherit the Black Family Estate was Draco Malfoy by way of his mother Narcissa Malfoy nee Black, as she was the only Black daughter to have a son.  
  
"The Malfoy's are in Riddle's Inner Circle and must, therefore, have appeared to the Black's to be in an excellent position to further both the Pureblood Agenda and to further the Black Family's position in what they probably hoped would be the new magical society. Unfortunately, they, like so many others, didn't see how Riddle killed just as many pure- and half-bloods as he did FirstGen's. Come to think of it, he killed more purebloods, specifically his own followers, than he did anyone else.  
  
"Later I'm going to have a conversation with Sirius to make sure the Malfoy's and Lestrange's are permanently disinherited and also kicked out of the Black family. They should also be banned from receiving funds and/or support from the Black Vaults. He has already made baby Hadrian his heir, but we need to make sure Dumbledore doesn't interfere like he did originally when he got Sirus thrown in Azkaban and then later just took over the political part of the Black Estate after the deaths of Orion and Walburga, including their Seat on the Wizengamot. He did the same thing to our Family and illegally voted the Potter Seat until his death in 1997."  
  
"How is that possible," James interjected. "There are laws, specifically inheritance laws, which should stop that from happening. Especially since he isn't closely related to either family. The Potter Seat, at the very least, should've been held in trust for you by Andromeda Tonks if Sirius or Alice Longbottom weren't available or capable of taking care of you. In all probability, she should've held the Black Family Seat as well, despite being disinherited and disowned upon her marriage to Ted. Unless Narcissa and Lucius somehow managed to convince the Wizengamot that they should have it or at the very least control it until you come of age."  
  
It had taken Hadrian and Hermione a long time to disentangle the political red tape to get to that piece of information, but like so many other things in Hadrian's life, it had led them straight back to Albus Dumbledore and his exceptional long reach. "Albus Dumbledore," he simply stated. "He proceeded to seal both of your Wills on the same night you were killed and then gave himself legal Magical Custody over me, which effectively gave him free reign. No one questioned him in the chaos of the war and the jubilation of the decade-long war finally being over. He most likely also played the 'wise old man' trick to get away with it. He knew I was Sirius' heir and of course, he knew I was the last Potter, so by making himself my Magical Guardian he could legally control the political part of the Estates. As he was neither a Potter nor a Black he couldn't touch anything of monetary value, such as gold, properties, heirlooms, and so on. The only heirloom he had, you've already given him access to, namely the Invisibility Cloak.  
  
"You never should've allowed that. It's much more important than you think and is probably among the chief reasons he arranged for your murder aside from ending the war temporarily." He could see both of his parents having burning questions, but time was running short and he needed to get back to the main point soon. "I can see you're curious, but we'll have to get back to that some other time. For now, let me continue where I left off before I went off on another tangent.  
  
"Sirius was arrested and thrown into Azkaban four days after your deaths. Alice and Frank Longbottom were tortured into insanity the day after that by Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Rabastan Lestrange, along with Barty Crouch Jr. And just like that, both of my Godparents were out of the picture, courtesy of Albus Dumbledore's manipulations. Removing them quickly was a smart move since both of them had enough political power to get me away from Dumbledore and the Dursley's. They would've understood something wasn't right, even if they hadn't seen it right away. I didn't know until a year after the Second Blood War ended that Mrs. Tonks was the third option to take me in.  
  
"In fact, I hadn't given Mrs. Tonks much thought at all until I met her in what should've been my seventh year, and she gave me a right fright with how much she resembled Bellatrix Lestrange. I'd met her daughter a number of times as she was a member of Dumbledore's little group of useless information gatherers, but I'd never given a thought as to what her parents looked like. Even if I did know she was Mrs. Lestrange and Mrs. Malfoy's elder sister. The other two women don't resemble each other much, so I simply expected a black-haired woman who most likely had grey eyes like the rest of the other Black's. Boy, was I in for a rude wake-up call."  
  
Hadrian bought some extra time by pouring himself another cup of tea after he discovered his cup was empty. A simple heating charm and he was enjoying more of the lovely tea Billy the House Elf had provided. Meeting Mrs. Tonks for the first time during the escape from Privet Drive had been a great shock on top of falling from the sky when Sirius' motorbike had been heavily damaged. Thankfully, she had proven herself to be a much better person, at least for the short time he and Hagrid had stayed at the Tonks home. Later on, had turned out to be an entirely different story. But he wasn't thinking about that either, so he went on with his retelling of the future events.  
  
"Dumbledore was also able to give himself a provision/allowance from both Estates for my supposed upkeep. As I got older he increased the amount and gave himself gold from both accounts for my mundane education and tutors for an imaginary magical education, plus vacations and other expenses. What he actually did was put all the gold directly into his own personal vault, except for a small amount each month which he gave to the Dursley's just in case he was discovered."  
  
Hadrian picked up his temporarily abandoned teacup from the table and wandlessly re-heated it again so he could wet his dry throat. His explanation had come out a little disjointed by the looks of it, and probably earned him another question and answer session. But rather than the expected questions, his mother rose with her toddler in her arms.  
  
"I think James and I need a little break, so we're going to put baby Hadrian back to bed." She gave a little fragile smile, and the time traveler only gave a small nod in response. He watched as his parents walked together towards the back of the house and the stairs which he knew was just out of sight from the living room. Their choice of leaving the room had been abrupt, but in all fairness, he had dumped a lot of terrible and heavy news on them. Their own impending murder, the betrayal of one of James' best friends, the betrayal of Lily's former best friend whom she clearly still cared for despite everything, their son being a Parseltongue and the fact that the ability ran in the Potter Family which meant any other children might inherit it as well, the major betrayal of the man they had believed was the Leader of the Light, and the list went on.  
  
Perhaps he should call it a night and allow them the chance to absorb everything and work through it before he dumped even more information on them. He had a hit list to put into action and the more names he could cross off it before Halloween the better he would be off since people would simply blame any deaths on the war. He had executed twelve people right before he came to Godric's Hollow. Starting with Lucius Malfoy as he'd been in Diagon Alley wearing his Death Eater regalia along with Crabbe and Goyle Senior, Alecto and Amycus Carrow, Antonin Dolohov, Augustus Rookwood, Barty Crouch Junior, Mulciber Junior, Rodolphus Lestrange, Walden Macnair, and Corban Yaxley.    
  
He'd been sporting light blue hair with matching eyebrows and eyelashes at the time and dressed in ripped jeans and a Megadeath t-shirt under an open robe. His most recognizable facial features had been hidden under light glamour spells, while his distinctive emerald green eyes had been hidden behind electric blue contact lenses. Most of the magical population who had seen him would probably only remember the blue hair and eyebrows as neither was something common in the secluded magical world.  
  
In fact, the single day he'd spent in the past had shown him that the magical world had actually managed to move forward a little in the decade he'd been hidden away and the time he returned to start his education at Hogwarts. Which had genuinely surprised him, but it was most likely due to the stranglehold Voldemort and his Death Eaters had on everyone at this point in time. Over the years since, people had relaxed and the FirstGen's had brought along fashion trends, popular music, modern opinions, and much more. The advancement hadn't been great, but it was visible if you knew what to look for and where to look for it. Obviously, the arrogant purebloods weren't going to accept something non-magical, but more liberal half-bloods and certainly more liberal purebloods were more willing to try new things even if they only did it once and then decided it wasn't for them.  
  
Despite all the signs of war and suppression, it had given him hope. It meant the magical population was willing to move forward with the times, they just needed a push. And in order to give them that push he needed to remove those he knew were the most opposed to changing Magical Britain into a modern Magical Country with all the advancements and achievements they used to have. Because back when Hogwarts was first built it had become the center of learning in Europe. Children from all over the European continent applied to become students and become educated in the first and later biggest school of magic in the world. For nearly three centuries this had been true, but as the years went by Britains population became more and more inbred which in turn caused each new generation to have less magical power than the last. This led to a lower education so they wouldn't look less intelligent next to the foreigners, FirstGen's, and the half-bloods who kept their power and intelligence due to not marrying their own close relatives.  
  
Add in Headmasters like Dumbledore who literally removed certain subjects from the curriculum because they either didn't want students to learn it because the Headmasters themselves didn't have the talent, because the Headmasters did have the talent but didn't want anyone to surpass them, they couldn't get anyone in Britain to teach the subject, and so on and so forth. Back in the day, there had been a myriad of subjects at Hogwarts, including Mathematics, Non-Magical History, the Dark Arts, Rituals, Politics, and Sex Magic.  
  
Sex Magic was a fascinating subject and had been a favored class at Hogwarts until a group of purebloods had finally managed to get it banned because it needed more raw magic than most purebloods had to spare without completely exhausting themselves. It had still taken more than two centuries before the school books and extra material had been removed from the Library, much to the enjoyment of those who were capable of performing the Rituals in them. It had become something of a coming of age thing to track down the books, find someone willing to do the Ritual(s), and then locate and secure somewhere to perform it/them. Headmaster Armando Dippet had finally removed them at some point during his tenure as Head of the School in the 1960's.  
  
Hadrian had found quite a few banned books in the Chamber of Secrets once he'd gotten around to explore it, and after allowing Hermione to read the books he'd managed to talk her into performing one of the Rituals down there in the Chamber. The Ritual had required both of the participants to be virgins but it would both purify them, release them from all harmful magics, and boost their power levels and comprehension. All of which were positive things to Hermione. Neither of them had mentioned the little fact that they weren't a couple or had even attempted to become one at that point in time. In fact, shortly before Hadrian had gotten a sudden interest in Ginny and Hermione had been 'crushing' on Ron for ages at that point. Still, Hermione had agreed and they'd gone down there in secret one night and performed the Ritual.  
  
His random attraction to Ginny had stopped as it seemed wrong to fancy someone who was that similar to his own deceased mother. Hermione lost interest in Ron as a romantic partner as his flaws were really too much for her to attempt to excuse. They were just too different. Hadrian and Hermione didn't become a couple right away but it was obvious to everyone that they were headed in that direction. So much so that there were bets going around.  
  
It hadn't been until a year later when Hadrian had discovered the treachery Dumbledore had told him about supposedly being a Horcrux. He had been a Horcrux, but the Sex Ritual had removed it along with so much other dark magic. Memories had been released, powers had been released, Hadrian had suddenly been able to concentrate properly. In short, it had been the most amazing experience of his entire life up until that point, and it still ranked pretty high.  
  
The two of them had kept the ritual a secret along with their budding relationship. Unfortunately, Dumbledore had interfered again and modified both of their memories so they didn't remember the Ritual, becoming a couple, or any of the other positive things which had resulted because of it. They'd been locked behind a Memory Spell and the two of them were back to being 'in love/crushing' on Ginny and Ron, just as Dumbledore wanted them to.  
  
Luckily he hadn't been able to replace all of his spells and potions as the Ritual caused Hadrian and Hermione's bodies to reject them. A few of the power blocks were replaced, but not all of them as it would've killed him due to his age and the maturity of his magical core. The mind blocks were only partially successful and degraded over time. He couldn't make Hadrian a Horcrux again, but he did attempt to imitate the effects without any success. The Ritual hadn't been able to remove the connection between Hadrian and Tom Riddle, and that was the whole reason Hadrian had believed Dumbledore about being a Horcrux. The end result was a smarter, more powerful Hadrian who was a force to be reckoned with and everywhere around him noticed. For once, all the attention didn't bother him and he simply went on with his business. He had years of education to catch up on and despite neither of them remembering their relationship Hermione had been more than willing to help him out in his pursuit of knowledge. To the old Manipulators annoyance, that had left Ron behind more often than not as he had no interestest in anything that wasn't Quidditch or eating.  
  
The three of them had remained friends, but the friendship wasn't nearly as close as it had been before the Ritual. Hermione kept in contact because of her 'crush' and she tried to keep that friendship until after the War. Harry saw Ron as his ticket to a pseudo-family, which coupled with the love potion keyed to Ginny, kept him close to the Weasley family.  
  
After Dumbledore's death, the mental blocks had begun coming apart much faster, but it had mostly revealed itself in vague and incomplete dreams they were only able to partially remember. It hadn't been until Ron abandoned them and the two of them had more or less accidentally kissed that the blocks came apart completely. When Ron returned they had pretended everything was as before he abandoned them, but they began using sleeping spells on him at night so they could talk privately without him being aware of it. They also drank antidotes against love potions and other potions meant to control them.  
  
Ron wasn't evil, but despite growing up in a loving family with parents who tried to install values in all their children, he had somehow developed an unfortunate case of 'poor me, I should be rich but I don't want to work for even a second to get it'. He also had the very unfortunate opinion that love potions were acceptable, despite his own unfortunate experience as an accidental victim of one several years before.  
  
Thinking back, while Hadrian had always been rich but never really known it, Hermione had come from an affluent family. Both of her parents came from the upper middle class, they owned their own dental practice, and could subsequently afford more or less anything they might want. This was evidenced by how expensive their daughter's mundane clothes were, how much they were willing to spend on books and any other materials she wanted.  
  
Yet Hermione never acted as if she was entitled or deserved better because of her social background. On the contrary, she rarely spoke of her family or their income, other than to tell anyone who asked that her parents were dentists. In the magical world that was equivalent to an immediate loss of interest, and further questions were rare. If they did ask, it was only to clarify what the profession was not to ask if they earned well.  
  
It had taken Hadrian years after the war to convince his wife to explain why she so rarely spoke of her parents in any dept. It turned out while they loved each other very much, they had never been good at showing it. As a consequence, their love had been expressed by way of treating their only child as if she was a favored student or perhaps a friendly, but young, scholar. Their relationship had been better at a distance, as written through long and detailed letters back and forth while Hermione was away at Hogwarts. Her status as a witch had further alienated them from each other, which had been one of the reasons she'd buried herself in her magical education in an attempt to recreate the relationship she'd had with her parents before. It hadn't worked since they had no experience with magic and couldn't learn it.  
  
By the time Hadrian and Hermione had graduated two years too late, Dr. and Dr. Granger had been polite strangers to their own daughter, and it wasn't just the memory charm she'd performed on them to keep them safe. It had been a painful reminder they would never be equals and if Hermione wanted she could legally make them do whatever she wanted, according to British Magical Law. To their daughter's immense disappointment they had elected to remain in Australia under their false identities.  
  
They visited the Granger's, or rather the middle-aged Wilkins' couple, twice a year. The two of them went to Australia for two or three weeks, had several polite but mostly empty visits where they spoke of the weather and other non-threatening subjects. When Hadrian and Hermione began having children they became the most talked about subject, but there was always something missing and Hermione always left more sad than happy. Particularly as her parents insisted on them both using the fake names Hermione had given them and demanded their grandchildren call them Dr. and Dr. Wilkins. They'd also made it a demand that their grandchildren were not told of the relationship between themselves and the couple they visited on the other side of the world.  
  
They were also not allowed to stay at the Wilkins home when they came to visit. For the first two visits, they'd stayed at a nearby hotel, but it turned out the Potter Family had a Summer Villa in Tasmania so they elected to stay there every time they returned and simply rented a car from a nearby town when they were in the country so no one would look too strangely at them for randomly appearing out of nowhere. Despite regular invitations to visit their magical home, it was always politely declined. All visits to her parents ended with Hermione crying herself to sleep. When her father died, her mother decided she no longer wanted anything to do with her child or grandchildren. The decision devastated Hermione. It turned out that had been what she'd wanted all along, but her husband had insisted on allowing the holiday sojourns mostly out of a morbid curiosity.  
  
Hadrian and Hermione never told their children or grandchildren who the Wilkins couple really were, and none of them ever expressed an interest in querying any further. Before he went back to the past he'd written down an abbreviated version of their history, including what happened to their maternal grandparents. Whether or not they ever chose to read it was entirely up to them. But the option was there, as was the choice to seek out other members of the Granger family.  
  
Hadrian wrenched his wandering thoughts back to the present. If he had a say in it, the Granger's would be much closer to their daughter this time around. They would be a real family and not just fake it behind individual masks and polite words and empty phrases. Hermione would have true parents and Hadrian would have a true family, and hopefully, their younger selves would grow up and fall in love with each other despite the improved circumstances.  
  
Hadrian listened to the steps of his parents coming back down the stairs and their soft but indistinct voices. They were so close, but still so far away. His parents were alive and well. They loved him, were willing to die for him so he could have a chance to live and grow old. His younger self, that was. This future version of him was much older than them, much more damaged, and probably much more corrupt as well. He had children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even a two-month-old great-great-granddaughter.  
  
As he was the true Master of Death he could make himself look any age he wanted within his own lifespan. Contrary to popular belief among those who sought the Deathly Hallows it didn't mean he could bring people back from death, heal the sick or cursed, or even kill people with a thought. It did mean, however, that he acquired the knowledge and, to a limited degree, the memories of the people he killed after he joined the Hallows. It didn't make him immortal either, but his lifespan would be greatly extended.  
  
He got up from the coach. It was time to call it a night and allow his parents some time to work through everything. He couldn't really imagine what it was like to be in their situation, but a little breather did seem to be in order.  
  
Lily Potter was the first one to reemerge, followed closely by James. Their child was upstairs, probably being tended to by Billy the House Elf. House elves were remarkable creatures and such wonderful helpers, but it was easy to become dependant on them. To forget they were sentient beings with a mind and a life of their own.  
  
He chose to end the reunion, "I believe it's time I take my leave. There's still much to do before Halloween, and I'm sure you two want to process the information I've given you."  
  
Lily's smile was relieved. "Thank you. We were trying to find a polite way to request that without seeming to abrupt." Then she frowned, clearly understanding the underlying meaning of her time-traveling son's words.  
  
"Will you be back tomorrow night?"  
  
"Of course. There's still much to tell you. Many things you need to know, many things you can do to help change the course of the future. I can't be a part of your lives for long, it could have terrible consequences on my younger self, but we still have time."  
  
Both of his parents looked deeply concerned at the revelation, but rather than ask more questions James guided his son toward the front door. They exchanged more words before Hadrian left for the night to continue with the less pleasant parts of his mission.


	4. Crossing Names Off the List

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, my apologies for taking six months to update this fic. The muse just wouldn't cooperate. :(
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has followed this story, given kudos, or written a review. :)

After leaving his parents' temporary home, Hadrian apparated to a hamburger bar at the outskirts of London and bought himself a double cheeseburger menu with everything before apparating back to his own temporary home in the past. It was nothing more than an old two-room cabin, with a low-ceiling second floor consisting of three bedrooms, which had been abandoned for about a century and a half by the looks of it. The first thing he'd done after locating it was to magically ward it with a variety of Potter and Black wards and make it unplottable. Then he'd spent a few hours fixing it up, adding modern amenities, and making it livable. He had also raised the ceiling on the second floor a little so it was more comfortable to stand up there. He was rather short for a man due to the childhood abuse he'd suffered, but he still needed space.

He had also used the Undetectable Extension Charm on a corner of the main living space, where he made himself an office, hidden away behind a false wall. He placed a full-length mirror on the wall, disguising the doorway. He could enter the room by way of a mental password, and then simply walk through the looking-glass and into the hidden room. To conceal it from anyone who might come looking, if he changed his mind about inviting anyone to come over, he Expanded the kitchen section and a small part of the living room. That way, anyone who decided to be nosy would simply assume he wanted more space for cooking and eating.

It wasn't in the vicinity of being Potter Manor nor did it have any of its luxuries, but thanks to magic it had a comfortable bed, a chest of drawers, a magically expanded wardrobe, a table, chairs, and a relatively comfortable sofa. It also had a small but serviceable bathroom, complete with a future, but simple version of a magical shower. The hidden office had a modest desk and a slightly modified non-magical office chair, as the latter was just more comfortable than the magical kind. Shelves were lining two of the walls. There was a chest of drawers on the third wall along with the door, and there was a large bulletin board above it. There were a blackboard and a whiteboard on the wall behind his desk. It would serve his needs for now.

The office also housed the trunk he'd brought with him from the future. In it were a large amount of gold, books, magical things, and anything else he and Hermione believed he'd need to accomplish their goals. The most precious part were the pictures of his family, to remind himself why he was doing this.

Eventually, he intended to make a potions lab and an exercise room in his currently non-existent basement, but it could wait. The old and very basic cellar under the building wouldn't go anywhere. Right now he had people to kill and parents to enlighten about the manipulations they were under.

The small cottage was one of the many properties which were a part of the extended Potter Estate. He had no idea what it had been used for as there had been no trace of any magic on it when he arrived, nor had there been any magical objects. There hadn't been any magical protections on the actual land either, an occurrence which was odd in and by itself. Maybe it was used as a meeting place for business between the Potters and someone mundane, or star crossed lovers had met there for a little secret romancing. He really had no idea.

He could've asked his parents if he could live in one of the many semi-kept houses or apartments, but he'd chosen the cabin because it was out of the way and inconspicuous. It was one of the properties which the family had seemingly forgotten about, which meant it was perfect for a temporary hideout. If no one knew where he was staying then they couldn't give away his location.

The next morning he got up at 5 am and by 5:30 he apparated to a small magical estate, a few kilometers east of London. The house had two floors and what looked like a low-ceiling attic. Given who lived there and how highly she thought of herself, it was a rather modest building. It was possible, of course, it was much larger on the inside, but people like her were fixated on appearances. If she'd been able to afford it, the house would've been bigger and practically screamed wealth and prestige.

The wards on the property were only the cheap, basic variety and he broke through them easily before he continued up the path to the house. She was a government employee in the middle of a war, you would've thought she'd protect her living space better. But apparently she was either even more arrogant than he remembered or she had even less money at this point. Or perhaps she was playing both sides as they'd suspected since Fifth Year and believed herself to be safe from both Voldemort and Dumbledore/the Ministry of Magic.

It was careless either way, there were always some people who had not gotten the secret memo. Or who chose to ignore it because they didn't like the person in question or their actions. Given all the laws and restrictions she had proposed and gotten passed in the Wizengamot it was quite strange she had made it as far as she had. Then again blackmail went a long way if you had the gonads to go through with it and felt secure enough in your threats that whoever you were blackmailing would not cave and go telling.

Hadrian walked briskly up towards the house, hidden under both an Invisibility Charm and the Cloak of Invisibility. Before applying the charm he had silenced his clothes and feet, once he was properly masked he'd silenced the rest of himself. It wouldn't do to be discovered by something as trivial as breathing or an accidental outburst if he stubbed his toe.

The garden was nothing special, just a lawn and the expected flowerbeds at each side of the front door. There was no fence or any kind of wall around the property, nor was there any kind of hedge to shield it from outsiders. The Muggle-Repelling Charm didn't count. The house itself was a lurid, faded shade of pink, and he was certain if it had been summer the flowerbeds would've been full of flowers in various shades of pink as well. A look at the windows showed equally pink, frilly curtains and he shuddered. If her home was anything like her office at Hogwarts had been then he was in for a pink, frilly, and kitten induced nightmare.

Steeling himself he tried the door and to his surprise, it opened without any resistance. Pureblood arrogance would never cease to amaze him. He shook his head in mild disbelief under the Cloak. A quick look at the other side of the door showed it didn't even have a lock. Hadrian shook his head again as he closed the door carefully behind himself. The inside was dark, but he'd brought along a magically shielded torch which he turned on and aimed at the floor inside the Cloak. It wasn't a very effective way to search, but it would do as long as he didn't know who was in the house. He very carefully didn't study the interior more closely than he needed to check for people, house elves, and traps or magical alarm systems.

He carefully made his way further into the house, regularly opening doors and checking what was on the other side. A systematic check of every room revealed there was only an unused guest room on the main floor, a bathroom, an office, and a couple of other rooms. No house elves revealed themselves to him to protect the property, so it was a good guess her hatred of anything non-human extended to them. It was most likely the reason she didn't have one of the useful creatures, as they were the obedient slaves she believed all non-humans should be. Of course, it also depended on if she could pay the sky-high price to obtain one of them.

He snuck up the stairs and repeated his procedure until he found an occupied bedroom. One of the rooms he peeked into on the way contained no less than four cats; two adult animals and two half-grown kittens. All four of them looked up sleepily when he opened the door and he quickly closed it. They were a complication he didn't need and had somehow failed to anticipate.

Much to his disgust, he didn't just find Dolores Umbridge in the bedroom, but also an equally naked Cornelius Fudge. Both of whom were fast asleep and thankfully covered. Pieces of clothing were strewn across the floor between the door and the large bed they were currently sleeping peacefully in. Against his volition, his eyes sought out their underthings in morbid curiosity, and he was soon 'rewarded' with the sight of some lacy and highly outdated women's underwear and some equally outdated men's underpants. Hadrian shuddered and forcefully yanked his eyes away from the floor, unfortunately, his eyes landed on Fudge and his mistress instead.

He'd had no idea their 'cooperation' had begun this early. On a whim, he took a number of pictures of the two of them in the bed from different angles before putting the camera back in one of his pockets. The Daily Prophet would get a copy of them later that day. He was actually looking forward to reading the paper when it came out because it promised to be entertaining and he could use some humor regarding this mess. If they had the guts to do it and no one managed to stop them from printing the pictures, of course. It depended on who currently had control of the newspaper.

Hadrian walked over to the nearest nightstand and took the unusually short wand laying there, it was the easily recognizable wand of his second most hated professor. After procuring the first wand, he walked around the large bed and took Fudge's wand from the other nightstand. It wouldn't do for either of them to save themselves by using magic.

When he returned to his original position he removed a small bottle of Strychnine from another one of his pockets. Like so many other things in the magical world, it was bigger on the inside. It was packed in several protective layers, just to be on the safe side. The poison wasn't as toxic as many others he could've chosen, but it had an appropriate horrific way of killing its victims. It caused every muscle in the body to spasm violently until the victim died of exhaustion. It seemed like a fitting way for her to die. Her married lover would get the same apt death.

He levitated the bottle and moved back to Umbridge's side of the bed, leaning over her he very carefully opened her mouth and a moderate lethal dose of the poison was poured down her throat slowly. He made sure she swallowed on regular intervals until he was satisfied she's gotten enough. The time-traveler then repeated the process on the future Minister of Magic. He sent a locking spell towards the door he had come through and then swept the room for any other exits but found none. The single window received the same treatment. Then he waited.

According to Hermione's research, it would take from 15 minutes and up to an hour before he would see any symptoms. Hadrian looked at Cornelius Fudge, in 1981 he was still the Junior Minister in the Department of Magical Accidents and Catastrophes. It would be another year or two until he would've won the election to become the British Minister for Magic. A sore point was, of course, the fact he'd only won because Dumbledore refused the position and Crouch Sr. lost because his son was arrested and convicted of being a Death Eater.

As he waited he tried not to look anywhere in the room, as it was either the horrid pink and kitten interior design, the clothes on the floor, or the naked couple in the bed. Granted, they were both in their very early twenties rather than somewhere between 30 and 40 like they'd been in the 1990's, but still. The only person he wanted to see naked in a bed was Hermione. At the ten minute mark, he removed the Cloak of Invisibility and the accompanying spell so he was visible once again. The Cloak was crammed into an expanded pocket.

The same 'young' man from yesterday was standing in the bedroom with bright blue hair and eyebrows, electric blue contact lenses, and an otherwise altered appearance so he was unrecognizable as a Potter. The idea was he might as well look outlandish, it would make people focus on the unusual parts and be less likely to remember something useful. In the unlikely event, someone had access to a Pensive, all they would see was a stranger who didn't resemble anyone in their secluded little world.

Suddenly Umbridge woke up in agitation as she was clearly having respiratory issues. She startled violently when she saw him standing a meter and a half from the bed observing her and she clumsily moved backward in the bed in fear while using the comforter to cover her breasts. Symptoms include rigid arms and legs, muscle pain and soreness, his brain helpfully supplied. As she suddenly arched her back the comforter slid down and revealed her naked chest, and the man beside her woke as he struggled to breathe.

For the next 20 minutes, Hadrian watched their condition get worse and worse. The uncontrollable arching of the neck and back gave way to increasingly more brutal spasms. In the beginning, they both attempted to keep their modesty, but it was quickly abandoned as the involuntary movements were too powerful and the comforters were abandoned on the bed. One of the covers ended up on the floor. The consequence was that Hadrian was given a full view of both of their genitalia and Umbridge's breasts. Somehow the time traveler and his wife had managed to not consider this possibility. The thought of the Undersecretary sleeping in the buff had never crossed either of their minds and right now, Hadrian was paying for that oversight.

A detached part of his mind noticed they were both fairly slender with very little extra fat on their bodies, as opposed to a decade and a half into the future when they were both overweight. Umbridge's breasts were too large for her frame and bounced around in a way that had to be painful as her body spasmed. In a similar manner, Fudge's flaccid penis flapped around as he spasmed. It was like watching an accident, you knew you should look away but rather than avert your eyes, you just stared helplessly at what was right in front of you.

They had both screamed in the beginning but soon gave it up for the most part in exchange for desperately trying to get air into their lungs. There were no neighbors for miles so it was pointless to scream since there were no one around to save them, and even if they had heard something the Muggle-Repelling Charm would keep them away. As he observed their last death throes he felt a pity for them, they had no idea why this was happening. They would never know why they had to die or why it had to be in this violent manner.

Dolores Jane Umbridge died first, her tense and exhausted body finally going completely lax. As she died her body did its most basic functions one last time, and Hadrian backed away a few more steps to try and avoid the sudden stench. Cornelius Oswald Fudge followed nearly four minutes later. Hadrian carefully wrote down their time of death in a notebook, then he put both wands back where he'd found them earlier after making sure he'd left no fingerprints or other identifying markers on them. He fished out his camera again and took another series of photographs, completely ignoring the cooling corpses nudity and the human waste under their bodies. These were for himself rather than for publication, a mix between proof of their deaths and a trophy.

Afterward, he removed all the magic he had used in the room and then he left as quietly as he had arrived with the Invisibility Charm back in place and the Cloak covering him again.

On the way out he opened the door to the cat room but pulled it as close as he could without actually closing it, so if the animals decided they wanted out all they had to do was push the door open. How the small predators would react to their deceased owner and her lover was entirely dependant on how soon someone arrived at the house and if there was food for the animals somewhere they could get to it.

Once he was downstairs he did a quick search of her office after breaking the pitiful ward on the door. He made magical copies of anything he found even remotely useful, and then took pictures of everything. The Daily Prophet would be getting a lot of letters from him while he cleaned up their society. If they refused to print it, well, there were other publications. If need be he could create his own and staff it with all of the first gens who were unable to get work at the Daily Prophet.

Money was not an issue. When he'd told his parents he'd gotten rich off of putting up magical wards for people after the second Blood War, he meant it. Both of the Potter and Black families had been exceptionally wealthy even before his father and godfather inherited anything, but the business had been booming once Hadrian found his niche. Eventually, he'd expanded and began traveling out of the country. He'd had other incomes as well, and by the time he had gone back in time, he had been the richest person on the planet. Magical or not.

Regardless, wealth was a cold comfort when he couldn't share it with the love of his life and his family.

He wrenched his mind away from how that had been accomplished. When he went back he'd only taken a fraction of it with him. His descendants in the future wouldn't face financial straits any time soon, especially if they continued in the same careful vein he and Hermione had so carefully taught them. He was still richer than the top ten wealthiest people in Britain. The money and gold he had brought back were mostly for emergencies and to boost his credibility should he need it. He would also start investing a portion of it soon, it would earn him quite a lot of money over the decades. The intent was to live off of his investments once he'd made the proper arrangements.

Unlike most of his fellow magicals, he was highly interested in the mundane world. They had so much to teach the secluded magical community and there was so much money to be made. Granted, Hadrian was cheating by having brought back financial reports and such so he knew exactly when and where to invest in order to get the best result. But still, he had every intention to rebuild his vast fortune and to help his parents expand the Potter portfolio as well. Not just for his parents' sake, but also for the sake of his younger and much more innocent self.

He also needed to convince his parents to preferably have at least four children. The one child 'rule' was ridiculous and ensured so many old families would go extinct. Not all of the upper class followed this unwritten rule, but quite a few of them did. It was quite clear just by studying the witches and wizards he'd gone to school with, and an abnormally high number of them had no siblings.

In the future, Hadrian and Hermione had welcomed no less than eight children over a period of two decades. First, they'd had a set of identical twin boys, both of whom had inherited the very distinct black and unruly Potter hair. They had also gotten their father and paternal grandmother's bright green eyes. Then a daughter, followed by another son, and then another daughter. A full decade later Hermione had given birth to an unexpected set of triplets. Their older children had been a mixture of excited over the news and exasperated and slightly embarrassed over their parents and their obviously active sex-life.

The Potter family was one of the oldest magical families in not just Britain, but Europe. They could trace their family tree back thousands of years, way before the four Hogwarts Founders, before the beginning of the magical society in Britain. They hadn't always been wealthy, but they'd always done well regardless. Hard work and careful spending had made them one of the most powerful families in Britain for nearly two millennia. Getting into Warding around the same time Hogwarts had been built had done much for their prosperity. A fact Dumbledore and everyone else had neglected to inform the young heir of at any point.

That was another reason why he needed his parents to have more children, in case they were killed at some other point and there needed to be someone else there to continue the family and its position in Magical Britain. James was an only child, his parents were dead, and his father had been an only child as well. Which meant there were no Potter cousins anywhere in sight. Four children might be a little much, but he was aiming high and hoping for at least three.

If there had been some extended family they would've felt obligated to take him in, if for no other reason than for appearances' sake. Then the Dursley's wouldn't have been an option.

On the other side of the family, the Evans' side, there hadn't been any other people either. Aunt Petunia and Dudley were his only living blood relatives. His grandparents on that side had been killed in a car crash not long after his parents' had married. His grandfather had been an only child, and his grandmother's only brother had died of some incurable disease a long time ago and hadn't left a family behind due to dying in his mid-teens.

After leaving Umbridge's house he repeated the process with a number of Marked Death Eaters and made sure their spouses got the same apt treatment. If they had children at home he made sure the door to the room the bodies were in was locked so it needed an adult to unseal it. He also alerted someone there was an emergency. At noon, he decided to break for lunch before he continued with a group of Ministry employees who were supportive of the known Dark Lord. At six promptly he knocked on the door of Potter Cottage.

His mother opened the door, dressed in black, well-worn jeans and a deep green woolen sweater. He could hear his father singing in another room, and the normalcy of it made him feel a little strange considering what he'd spent his day doing. But he righted his slightly off-kilter view and smiled at his mother as he walked inside.

Once they reached the living room he saw the dining room table was set for four people, including a high chair and the appropriate child-sized silverware. The sight of little Hadrian made him smile and the boy returned the gesture as soon as he discovered there was a new person in the room. It made him happy to know his younger self had been so carefree.

Lily Potter nee Evans was a touch more wary of his presence that she had been yesterday, probably because she'd seen that day's newspaper, but she chose not to comment on it or what she knew he'd been doing before he arrived back at the cottage. Presumably, there would be time for that particular headache at some other point after the Halloween Incident had been dealt with.

James Potter entered the room levitating their dinner and his wife walked by him into the kitchen to get the rest. Dinner was spent on more pleasant topics, such as his mother's work on her Potion and Charms Masteries and his father's work as an Auror. His younger self was also a frequent topic, and he got them to confirm he truly was a natural on a broom. Much to his father's joy and his mother's slight fear for his safety. He wisely chose not to go into too much detail about his own death-defying stunts on a broomstick.

As dessert was winding down he steered the topic from baby Hadrian's wild adventures on his toy broom and over to the subject of more little Potter's.

"Do you intend to have more children?" He wasn't really suave with words, so he went with the slightly blunt approach.

They looked at each other and carried out an entire conversation with only their eyes and faces, and eventually, his mom turned to him and replied. "Yes. We're both from small families and we want to have two or three children."

James chimed in with his two cents and added, "I'm an only child and, while I loved my parents dearly, I always wished I'd had at least one brother or sister to play with." He smiled at his beloved wife and she gave him an equally smitten look back.

"As you know, I have an older sister. Before I got my letter we mostly got on great, except when I did something magical. But we were close and I've always hated how it tore us apart. Some of it was my fault, I was so wrapped up in this new, exciting world and all the people who could do magic just like I could! There was so much to learn and, I'm sorry to say, I kept talking and talking about it. Despite knowing about Tuney's lack of magic and how much it must've hurt her to be left behind by her little sister. I tried to make up for it as I got older, but the damage was already done. There was a permanent wedge between us."

Hadrian blinked, he knew from reading Lily's diaries she had loved her big sister very much and that the constant rejections had been painful, particularly after they both had children. A part of him had always wondered if he hadn't been dumped on the Dursley's doorstep, would they have had another child? A little blonde and blue-eyed girl, or perhaps another boy, who would've lived in Dudley's second bedroom instead of all of his broken toys and the books he never read. Maybe he'd find out if he didn't enact his punishment against them just yet.

Suddenly, he realized she was building up to something and railed in his wayward thoughts and focused properly on his parents.

Lily gave him a happy and secretive, but slightly wary, smile. "I'm pregnant right now and due in five weeks."

Hadrian's jaw literally dropped open. There hadn't been even a hint at this anywhere, and he'd been over everything with a fine-tooth comb many times looking for anything that would connect him to his deceased family or that he could use in any way.

Next to him, James grinned happily in the way expectant fathers everywhere did. Clearly proud of their achievement and Hadrian smiled back reflexively. He was going to be a big brother! Then the smile died on his lips. How was it possible that there had been no mention of this anywhere? Not even his mother's medical file at St. Mungo's had listed a second pregnancy.

Both of them frowned at his reaction, but Lily was the one to ask, "Hadrian? What's wrong?"

"I've been over all things Potter so many times over the decades, but there isn't even a vague hint you were expecting again."

She smiled kindly, "I know, but you only checked the stuff in the magical world, didn't you?" And just like that, he felt like a fool. Of course. He'd fallen for the same trap he'd accused so many others of doing.

"We've been more or less in hiding for the last year and when I discovered I was pregnant again I decided to go to a muggle doctor so I wouldn't become a larger target than I already was. Since I exist in the muggle world it didn't cause any problems, especially since I'd kept up with my regular appointments. Very few people were aware of this and I used my knowledge of Charms to hide the evidence. I used little Hadrian and the war as an excuse to stay out of the public eye." She sipped her water and continued.

"The only people we told were Alice and Sirius as they are your godparents. Not even Frank, Alice's husband, knew about it."

His mind was going a mile a minute, "Did Dumbledore or anyone else from the Order know?"

"No," James replied swiftly, "We didn't tell him, and Sirius and Alice were sworn to secrecy. No one else knows."

That left Legilimency. Dumbledore didn't care about laws or anyone's privacy, all that mattered was knowledge and information he could use to further his own plans.

"Did you think about the new baby while you were around Dumbledore?"

"No, he usually just wanted updates on the Ministry and what we might've heard that could help the Order and our mission." He became quiet for a little while, "We didn't really have much to do with him after you were born. He occasionally asked how you were doing, but he never visited. The only exception was when he came here to cast the Fidelius Charm on the Cottage. Even then, he only stayed long enough to do the spell and be told the secret. Then he left and hasn't been back since."

Hadrian frowned. The magic outside and the magic inside the house clearly said otherwise, but that was a discussion for some other day. For now, he would assume the old manipulator was unaware of the new baby. Which was good.

"That might explain why he never said anything or even vaguely hinted that I might've had a brother or sister if we hadn't been betrayed. This time around my sibling is going to live and I'm going to make sure of it, even if I have to change my plans in order to make sure of it."

How could no one have noticed? The body of a woman who was 8-9 months pregnant was vastly different from the body of a woman who wasn't heavy with child. They must've cleaned and redressed his mother's body before the burial. Whoever had done that couldn't have been that incompetent, could they? Or maybe they had been mundanes or whoever had done it had chosen to keep it a secret so as not to make it an even bigger tragedy. A pregnancy that advanced could've to lead to the birth of a living child despite the mother's death. Then it hit him like a sledgehammer; Lily Potter had been killed with the Killing Curse and anything it hit died. No doubt that would include the unborn baby.

"Right. Nevermind Dumbledore, for now, we have bigger problems coming in a few days and we need to make plans for how to deal with Riddle."


	5. Backstory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all those who have followed this story, given kudos, and/or taken the time to write a review. It's highly appreciated. :)

His mother was pregnant with her second child, and that meant the issue regarding children could be put on hold for some time. A second child would help and waiting a few years for a third and possibly a fourth child wouldn't cause any problems for his long term plans. Since making sure his parents had more children was no longer something he needed to worry about he mentally crossed it off his most urgent To-Do list.  
  
Before he managed to change the subject his mother interjected with a question, "You seem very relieved about the happy news. Why is that?"  
  
"Simply put?" She nodded and smiled encouragingly at him. "The main problem with this whole mess is because there are no adult Potters at this time other than dad. That allowed Dumbledore to do whatever he wanted to me, knowing full well that no one would object or question him. The more children the two of you have, the less chance there is of something like this happening again."  
  
"No Potter has had more than one child in probably seven or eight generations." Hadrian just gave his father the look the comment deserved.  
  
"That's the problem. As the family, mainly the remaining cadet branches, kept getting killed off in various wars and conflicts someone should've made the connection and started to plan for bigger families. Having even one more child would've made a difference. If Dumbledore had it his way we would all be killed on Halloween and he would probably have done something to claim at least part of the Potter Estate and the Potters would've been just another extinct magical family."  
  
Finally, his parents seemed to grasp the extent of the problem and Dumbledore's manipulations so he soldiered on while he had their full attention. "This is why I want you to have a minimum of four children, preferably even more if you can and are willing. The same with the following generations. We need to make sure something like this can never be allowed to happen again, and the first step is to have more children."  
  
Lily and James had another silent conversation and he chose to wait more or less patiently.  
  
"What about yourself?"  
  
Hadrian blinked, "What about me?"  
  
It was his mother's turn to give him a look, "You've traveled back from the future and you won't be able to go back. Are you going to get married here in the past and have children of your own, or are you going to live out your life in solitude, mourning your wife while watching her younger counterpart from a distance while she may or may not marry your younger self?"  
  
"If you marry and have children of your own, I can have you added as a Potter and you'll essentially be the head of a cadet branch." His father interjected. Then added, "Even if you don't I can still have you added as a family member and you'd take over as the temporary Head of the Family if something happens to Lily and me before your younger self comes of age."  
  
They had talked about this in the future, if the worst scenario happened then he'd be able to raise himself, at least in some minor capacity, but somehow the option of him re-marrying and starting a new family had never occurred to him. If Hermione had considered it then she'd chosen to keep it to herself. Given how her brain worked she probably had and he'd just missed the subtle clues. His parents did make some good points.   
  
Given his unique experiences, particularly the event that ended with him having both Basilisk Venom and Phoenix Tears in his bloodstream meant his DNA and his magic was different enough from his younger self that reproducing shouldn't be a problem. Particularly if James managed to establish him magically as the Head of a Cadet Branch  
  
"My beloved wife's death is still fresh, so if I decide to re-marry it won't be any time soon. Especially with the war and the modernizing of the Magical World. Both of those is going to take time and a lot of effort. Romance isn't something that's on my mind, but I'll think about it and consider it seriously when things have calmed down a little."  
  
They accepted his answer and once again gave their condolences.  
  
A short debate could be seen on his mother's face before she gave in to her own curiosity, "How many children did you have with your wife?"  
  
"We had planned for five but ended up with eight as we got a surprise set of triplets a decade after the last one."   
  
This time he laughed at the shocked expression on their faces. "Eight?!"   
  
"As I said, we discussed it and decided on having five children over a period of ten years. We did not plan on having three one-year-olds when we sent the fifth one off to Hogwarts."   
  
James snorted then fell over laughing. Lily shook her head at his antics but smiled warmly at her son. "You gave us eight grandchildren."  
  
Hadrian gave his father time to collect himself before he sprung the next bomb on them. "Yes, mum, we gave you eight grandchildren. And they gave you more than 30 great-grandchildren, who again gave you more than 130 great-great-grandchildren as everyone had at least four children of their own."   
  
His parents were speechless, their eyes wide, and he couldn't help but grin proudly at their reaction. "The Potter Family is a huge and highly influential one in my future. We all worked hard to modernize it and improve the knowledge and interaction with the Mundane World. It's what I'm hoping to achieve much earlier in this timeline."    
  
"We have 30 great-grandchildren?"   
  
"34," Hades replied, amused. "It's a good thing Potter Manor is so big and that we're magical or we'd run out of space."   
  
James and Lily both looked towards their young son in his high chair. "We're going to have 34 great-grandchildren?"  
  
"That depends on how many children you have. If you have four children and each of them has four children of their own then you'll have 16 grandchildren. If each of your grandchildren chose to have 4 children then you'll get 64 great-grandchildren." He considered the theory and cross-checked it with his memory.   
  
"That's assuming everyone is straight, gets married, and have four children. There's always a chance someone will choose not to marry, is gay and doesn't want to adopt/use surrogacy, or simply doesn't want that many children, don't want any at all or can't have any for whatever reason. At least not biologically.   
  
"But yes, if everyone has more children then there's a high possibility you could get 30 plus great-grandchildren."  
  
"I really love the idea of that," Lily ventured, a soft smile around her lips as her eyes went from her oldest child to her husband.   
  
"Alternately, if you have two children and each of them has two children, and your grandchildren do the same then you'll get 14 great-grandchildren." More silent communication passed between the two and Hadrian chose to get back to the topic they had discussed before they got sidetracked again.  
  
"More children and descendants are a topic for the future, we need to continue. I would like to be added as a distant cousin to the British Potters. Someone who has been living in America but was raised as a mundane due to my parents getting killed in an accident when I was a child. In order to explain my accent, let's just say my adoptive parents were British, we spent some of my formative years here, and we also had many summer vacations in England."  
  
He gave it some more thought, "My adoptive parents died recently, which will explain my grieving, and I went to the local Gringotts Bank and took an inheritance test to see if I had any living family members, and your name came up."  
  
James smiled, "That should work. We just need to do a short ritual and then I'll fill out the parchment work and we can file it with the Department of Magical Inheritance at the Ministry.  
  
"Thank you, that should make my circumstances in the past much easier." He would need to get himself a fake ID in the Mundane World, as there, unfortunately, was no way around that if he wanted to exist there and do business.   
  
"One moment, you two." Both men looked at Lily, but her eyes were on her son. "What about your name and birthdate? You can't use the same name and date as baby Hadrian."  
  
Crap. Hermione had brought up the same issue, but they hadn't really gotten anywhere with it. He didn't want to change his name or even his initials, but if this was going to work he'd have to.  
  
"Any suggestions? Something that would keep my initials as H.J.P."  
  
"Um... Harry, Hamlet, Hawthorne, Haddow, Huckleberry," James suggested. "Hardwin is a family name."  
  
Hadrian grimaced. "Harry is definitely out; I hate that name. And I don't like the others. And there's no chance I want anyone to call me Huckleberry Finn." His father gave him a confused look, but his mother started to reel off more H names before he had a chance to comment.  
  
"Hamilton, Hamish, Harvey, Hawk, Hector, Hennessy, Hercules, Hershel, Homer, Honorius, Howard." She tipped her head to the side in contemplation, "What about Hades? It's a nickname for Hadrian and it goes along with your mission, sort of."  
  
"God of the dead and the underworld. It's fitting, I suppose. It's also a nickname certain people in the future used to call me." He gave it some more thought and came to the conclusion he could live with that name despite the negative connotations people associated with it.  
  
"Very well, Hades it is. What about a middle name, starting with J?"  
  
"Jared, Jensen, Jeremiah, Jeremy, Jericho, Jethro, Jonathan, Joshua, Julian, Justice." James listed off the top of his head but wrinkled his nose as he clearly didn't really like any of them.  
  
Lily on the other hand still looked contemplative. "What if we keep with the theme of ancient gods, but switch from Greek to Roman? More specifically to the Roman god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings. It fits your quest even better than Hades."  
  
"Janus. Hades Janus Potter. It doesn't really flow and the first and middle name ending in the same letter is going to get old quickly, but sure. Why not. I doubt I'll use my new full name for anything other than on the rare occasions I'll need to fill out formal applications or some kind of legal requests or petitions."  
  
James looked at him, studying the face of his time-traveling son. "What year would you like as your birth year? You seem a few years older today than you did yesterday, and since you've told us you're a three-times great-grandfather I'm going to assume you're not really in your early 20's." The last part came out on the more sarcastic side.   
  
"Your assumptions are correct, father." The newly re-named Hades replied in a fake aristocratic voice, before grinning. "I've passed my first centennial," he continued in his normal voice, "but since quite a lot of what I need to do requires me to be younger that's how I've chosen to appear. Don't ask how I've accomplished it, I can't tell you. At least not yet."   
  
"I've done the math," his mother said quietly, "but hearing you say it still makes it sound surreal. You're 80 years older than us."   
  
Not nearly as weird as it is for me to meet my parents who are the age of my great-great-grandchildren, he thought quietly to himself but refrained from voicing it. She was right, the situation was surreal.  
  
He simply nodded before he replied to his father's question. "It's 1981 and I'd like for people to believe I'm 19, so 1962? That would make me two years younger than the two of you."   
  
James grinned, "Welcome to the family, Hades Janus Potter!" He spread his arms a little theatrically and his two companions laughed at his antics.  
  
"Just fill out the parchment work and make sure it's filed by tomorrow night. If anything goes wrong, I need to be able to get legal rights to everything so Dumbledore can't get his greedy hands on anything Potter - including me. Although, if he does I know exactly where to find baby Hadrian and there will be nothing the old coot can do to stop me."  
  
"Of course," James replied before adding, "I'll have the ritual ready for tomorrow night."  
  
"Easy you two," Lily interjected again. "You'll need another family name. Even the magical world will have a hard time believing there's a random magical Potter in America with that name that your father and I didn't know about already. Dumbledore especially will find it strange if he has done any research at all to make sure no one can claim you."  
  
Hades hung his head in defeat, he was really hoping neither of them would make that connection. Clearly, his lack of knowledge about her had made him underestimate her. Raising his head again, he asked, a little defeated, "Any suggestions?"  
  
After nearly five minutes of back and forth, many suggestions, and more tea they agreed on Primus. Mainly because it amused James and Hades just wanted to move on. Lily then removed 'Potter' from the parchment she'd been writing on and replaced it with Hades Janus Primus. Basically, he'd be known as Hades the First as 'primus' meant 'the first' in Latin. He felt a little ridiculous, but let it go.   
  
What followed was a quick discussion regarding Hadrian's new identity, such as a new date and place of birth, along with his fake adoptive parents' personalia, and Hadrian's magical education. Lily wrote everything on a conjured piece of parchment as her husband easily admitted her handwriting was much more legible than his.  
  
James would make a proper form after his time traveling son had left for the night and then turn it in at the appropriate office at the Ministry the day after. Preferably without being seen, at least not by any of Riddle's followers or supporters. Or by Dumbledore and any of his followers.   
  
The newly Christened Hades looked at his wristwatch. "I hate to rush this along but we need to move on to the next topic of discussion. Time is short and I have a lot to do, and the two of you need to pack and move whatever you want to keep from this cottage. Chances are it's going to be in shambles come first November and whatever's left will probably be looted by the time you're able to get back here."  
  
The humor left their faces and they became serious once again. "Of course, continue."  
  
Hadrian moved on and looked his father straight in the eye, "May I have your permission to remove all the current wards on Potter Manor and redo the entire warding scheme using Parselmagic?" He subconsciously held his breath while waiting for either a rejection or permission to upgrade the old wards. Magical law stated that if you wanted to add to, remove, or entirely change the wards or warding scheme on a house or property then you needed the explicit permission of the Head of House. That meant getting his father's permission.  
  
James blinked at the sudden non-sequitur. A multitude of thoughts could be seen crossing over his young face, but what came out of his mouth was a simple "Why?".  
  
"Do you remember what I said yesterday about the wards in the future?" His father affirmed his recollection of their conversation from the day before and the time traveler continued, "The wards on the Manor are holding steady and they'll keep holding steady for centuries as long as someone lives there for at least one month every three years or so, especially since the general population believes it has been destroyed, but with my improvements from the future it'll be even safer.   
  
"I realize you didn't intend to move there for another decade at least as I'm sure you want to establish yourselves as a family and not just take over the Manor so soon, but it's imperative you move in there for everyone's safety. Give it a few years so the war and the worst of its after-effects have calmed down so it's safer to move away."  
  
In the future, once he and Hermione had discovered that Potter Manor was intact and had just been magically mothballed that had begun a multi-year project where they redesigned the entire building along with all the smaller buildings on the property. It had been expanded both outwards, upwards, and downwards, adding rooms, wings, and floors. Just the library had been expanded so it had covered four floors instead of one and a half.   
  
There had originally been one potions lab in the basement, but they had moved it to one of the smaller buildings for safety reasons. They had also added another three so they could safely brew different potions without worrying about them accidentally mixing. One of the labs had been specifically child-proofed so their children, and later other descendants could practice without fear of being harmed. As their children got older they had also added a chemistry lab on their request.   
  
Another one of the smaller buildings had included a dueling room but they'd expanded it into four in case someone wanted privacy or if there were too many people for a single room. They had remodeled the rest of the little house to include a gym in a newly made basement with weights and such, a room for yoga and meditation, locker rooms, two saunas, and a kitchenette with a sink and a watercooler.   
  
Not far from the gym there was a large World Cup-sized Quidditch pitch and, again, on request from their children they had added a football field with a track around it a short distance away. Unsurprisingly the Quidditch pitch had been used the most as flying around at great speeds was another Potter family trait despite Hermione's fear of flying on a broom.  
  
One of the new wings they'd added to the Manor had been magically shielded so they had a media room with a TV, a music system, and other electrical equipment. It also had two computer rooms, one for the parents and one for the children. The latter also included several gaming systems. One of the rooms was specifically for the children to use for homework assignments since computers were obligatory at all schools, including the highly modernized Hogwarts. Some bright minds had even created a sub-internet which worked entirely on magic and was inaccessible to mundanes no matter their computer skills.  
  
A smile appeared on James' face as he obviously thought about his childhood and growing up on that estate. The Manor had been quite large, but it had been a genuine home from what he'd read in his family journals. The vials of memories he'd found in the Potter Heirloom Vault at Gringotts had backed up the written accounts. As a tribute to his family, and to give himself a proper memory of them, they had included some of the old designs into the new Manor.  
  
"I miss Potter Manor," James replied as a reminiscent smile ghosted around his mouth. Then clearly making up his mind, he added, "We'll move to the Manor and live there for at least two years and then we'll go from there. It's tradition to live in the Manor starting from about two weeks prior to a witch giving birth and then at least a month afterward. So we were intending to move there in two-three weeks to prepare for our second child to be born."  
  
The time traveler nodded, he'd read that information in many of the family journals. His father's had included details about his own birth and his first month at the Manor with his parents and paternal grandparents. There were even mentions of his maternal grandparents visiting a few times, having been apparated there by James. Petunia and her husband had repeatedly refused an invitation to come to visit, using their own newborn son as an excuse.  
  
His father straightened his posture and in an official voice replied, "I, James Charlus Potter, Head of the Most Ancient and Most Nobel House of Potter, hereby give you permission to remove the current wards on Potter Manor and replace them with a ward scheme of your choice using Parselmagic. So mote it be."  
  
A soft white light appeared around the two men for a moment before it faded, and Hades smiled in relief.   
  
"Good, then you'll be safe both from Riddle and Dumbledore and all of their followers." Hades looked at his mother, she'd been silent throughout the entire exchange. "You don't approve?"  
  
Emerald green eyes met his own emerald green ones, "I was hoping to live in a smaller home for at least a few more years, but I understand why you want us to move back there."   
  
"It's quite alright, Lily-Flower, we can move into one of the other houses or apartments when the unrest in the magical world has settled a little."   
  
Lily gave her husband a thankful smile and a small sideways hug before she continued, "We agreed to live in an apartment off of Diagon Alley, to begin with since the Potter's own several of the buildings, but had to move here because of all the Death Eater raids on the Alley and its side streets."  
  
"Let me guess, this cottage was Dumbledore's idea?" The young couple each gave a small grimace at the rhetorical question and he continued. "My wife and I had some ideas as to why but it isn't important. It's done and we have a tentative plan to foil his attempt to get you out of the way."  
  
"You have to live here until the morning of the 31st so as not to arouse suspicion. If you leave around noon it shouldn't cause any problems, but you can't be seen leaving, which means you need to get your Cloak back." The last part was said directly to his father.    
  
"Dumbledore has it, he wanted to study it because it has lasted centuries without losing its invisibility."  
  
"I know, but you need to get it back and when you do we all need to go over it to make sure he didn't put any spells on it or attempt to modify it in any way. It's imperative he doesn't have it. Give him whatever excuse you want, but get it back even if you have to give him a vague promise that he can borrow it in the future. Just be unspecific without being obvious about it."  
  
Lily frowned slightly, "What did he do to it in the future?"  
  
"I don't know all of it, I simply did a cleansing of all magic not done by a Potter or with a Potter's knowledge and permission and afterward it worked perfectly. But I do know he did something to it so certain magical objects could see through it, including his own magically enhanced glasses and Mad-Eye Moody's eye. There were also trackers, and not just Dumbledore's. Several kinds of spells to invoke rulebreaking and to do his bidding."  
  
Hadrian swallowed. "There was some nasty stuff on it and I just wanted it gone so I could use it without worrying."  
  
It took some time after that to calm his father down. The man was a pureblood and he'd been raised believing one did not add, remove, or modify the magic on somebody else's family heirlooms, apparently there was some kind of old law strongly prohibiting that kind of action and the punishment was rather severe. In his own mind, Hadrian wondered how they had managed to miss that in the future. Hermione had been over the laws forwards, backward, and even at random. There had been nothing that specific, but he let it go as it could easily be a creative interpretation of an existing law used by the old families for their benefit. There were quite a few of those. They needed to move on.  
  
"Just get the Cloak, dad. And whatever you do, don't make him suspicious about why you want it or that you know he might've hexed it. I don't know when he did any of it, it could still be clean. He thinks he has years to research it, so he most likely hasn't done anything to it yet. For all I know, he won't do any of it for another decade."  
  
"Why a decade?"  
  
"He had the temerity to give it to me as a Christmas gift in First Year, with an unsigned note saying it had belonged to you." Then, before either of his parents could get a word in, he added, "That same night I just happened to wander around Hogwarts and came across a disused classroom with a huge, ornate mirror in it."  
  
He paused for dramatic effect, he just couldn't help himself, before he went on. "The mirror turned out to be a Class XXXX Restricted Artifact known as the Mirror of Erised."  
  
The revelation and the following explanation went about as well as he'd expected and they lost even more time on the discussion. It ended abruptly when Lily got little Hadrian out of the baby chair and handed the child to his father. "Go upstairs and put him down, I need to talk to our resident time-traveling son alone."  
  
Both of the adult men in the room blinked at the sudden change of topic, but James clearly recognized the signs of his wife's determination and obediently accepted his son carefully and carried him upstairs. Hadrian, now Hades, meanwhile, decided it would be prudent to simply wait for whatever his mother wanted.  
  
Once she heard him ascending the stairs she threw up a Muffliato Charm and asked a question she clearly didn't really want the answer to but forced herself to ask regardless. "What did my sister and her good-for-nothing husband do to you growing up?"  
  
Her entire body was tense and her face clearly showed she expected the answer to hurt. Hades only looked at her for a few moments, searching her face for clues about something he wasn't even sure about. He very carefully made sure not to use Legilimancy on her for anything other than the permanent truth 'setting' he had it on. It was too useful not to keep active at all times.   
  
"My room was the cupboard under the stairs until the Hogwarts Acceptance Letters began arriving shortly before I turned eleven. They were addressed to Mr. H. Potter, The Cupboard under the Stairs, 4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. I was then moved up to Dudley's second bedroom because they were afraid of repercussions, and the address of the letters changed to 'the Smallest Bedroom'."  
  
He ignored his mother's horrified reaction as he knew it would get worse. "I didn't know my own name until I was five years old and started school. Up until then, I thought my name was Freak or possibly Boy. I had to start cleaning when I was two, mainly it was to keep Dudley's toys in their appropriate boxes or places since I wasn't allowed any toys of my own. As I got older I had to start dusting, washing, cleaning the floors and so on. When I was four Aunt Petunia made me start cooking, even if I couldn't reach the counter."  
  
Hades looked away, "Insults both to me, you, and dad happened every day. Most days I was slapped or hit. Vernon beat me up on a regular basis and it was especially bad if I did accidental magic. They allowed Dudley to hit, kick, pinch and beat me up whenever he wanted. If I bled on anything in the house or on their property I was punished, and then had to clean it up.  
  
"Bathroom breaks was a privilege, not a right. I was only allowed to use the shower once a week and in the summers they forced me to use the garden hose instead. I can't remember ever being allowed to eat my fill at any meal, but they always ate more than their share and Dudley always stole some of my food despite him having much more."  
  
Lily was softly crying at that point, but he went on. She needed to know. "Other punishments included starvation for days at a time with only a glass of tepid water a day. Often it also included being locked in the cupboard as well. I was never allowed to be better than Dudley at anything, including school. When I came home with my first report card with only top marks I got the worst beating I'd had until then and ordered to never do it again. Then I was thrown head first into the cupboard and not fed for six days."  
  
Even to this day he was absolutely certain that the only reason he survived that was that he'd stolen food and hid it under a loose floorboard in the cupboard. At the very least, if he hadn't he'd have been in much worse shape when he was finally let out. He'd been weak and dizzy, yet they had only allowed him stale bread and more tepid water.  
  
"Didn't Dumbledore do anything to at the very least improve their treatment of you?"  
  
Hades laughed bitterly. "Of course not. He left me there because he wanted them to abuse me and make me downtrodden so he could more easily 'guide' me when I finally arrived at Hogwarts so I would follow his manipulations. It didn't work as well as he'd hoped, so he added potions to make me more... Malleable and susceptible to his 'advice'."  
  
More than a century later and he still couldn't wrap his mind around how the old man could force a toddler into a situation like that and just leave him to rot. It was only marginally kinder than leaving a mundane with a blood purist and expect the child to be alive or even slightly sane a decade later. It made no sense from a humane point of view or even a logical or legal one. Magical law stated that orphaned magical children were always to be placed with a couple where at least one of them was magical, preferably both.  
  
Aunt Petunia didn't count as a magical person and even if you could make a case of her being a latent witch, it didn't matter since she hadn't grown up in a magical home and knew little to nothing about how their world worked. Dumbledore should've been prosecuted for breaking that law, as it was widely known throughout the magical world that 'Harry Potter' was living with his non-magical relatives. Someone should've come and removed him, but it never happened. Most likely due to the old man's powerplays and refusal to give up the location until the first Letter was sent. By then it was too late and thanks to the potions and a belief that Dumbledore decided where he should live during the summers he kept going back there.  
  
"He chose my friends, made sure I was isolated from most of the student population so I couldn't get the information he didn't want me to have, ensured I couldn't defend myself from whatever was written about me in books or the newspapers and magazines. He took away Sirius, Lupin, and all of your support network so I had no one and was left to rely on his sheeple. My wife was the only friend who managed to get through the infrastructure he'd made around me. She was the voice of reason in all the madness. The reason I managed to finally break free of everything."  
  
Hades swallowed, he hated to talk about that period of his life. The only good thing that had come out of it was meeting Hermione and falling in love with her despite all of Dumbledore's attempts to get him with a number of other 'suitable' girls. Read girls who believed he was the second coming of Merlin and should always be followed regardless of the consequences to them or anyone else.  
  
Breathe in and slowly exhale, breathe in deeply and slowly exhale he told himself firmly. Repeat until calm.  
  
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to distress you. I just... I was hoping Petunia didn't turn out as bad as you'd implied. She's my sister, my family."  
  
And he got that, honestly. But it didn't mean he would ever forgive her. Abusing a child was one of those things that would never be acceptable. Although, if he was honest he hadn't been the only child she'd abused. Dudley had suffered as well. The abuse she heaped on him was very different from what she'd done to Hades, but in the long run, it had been even more damaging.  
  
Being given whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted it might seem like the perfect childhood, but it wasn't. Dudley had no real life skills. He couldn't cook, didn't know how to shop for clothes or groceries, didn't know how the bank worked because his parents always handed him money. He had no work ethic because he had never been ordered to do anything in his life, and he had firmly believed that using his parents or his fists would get him whatever he wanted.  
  
The end result was that he'd been in and out of jail for various petty crimes, spent a number of years in prison for any number of violent acts, and he'd ended up dead at 32 after getting on the wrong side of a bloke who was bigger and meaner than him. His cousin's entire life had been a waste.  
  
"I know, mum, and I understand where you're coming from."  
  
"Please, don't do anything to her. Give her a chance to change."  
  
"You do realize the only way she'd be willing to even attempt that was if her husband was removed from the equation, right?" He knew he was being cruel, his mother was begging for her sister's life. But. *But* there were alternatives...  
  
"Send Vernon to prison! Do it in a scandalous and very public way that will make Tuney divorce him and keep Dudley far away from his father for years to come. She'll be forced to fend for herself and her child. Vernon's drunken sister won't help and she's too proud to ask me for charity. Especially since she knows where the money is likely to come from."  
  
He curiously tipped his head slightly to the side. "Don't you have any money of your own? I know there's both a vault and a bank account in your name, and I'm certain you inherited a nice sum of money when your grandparents and your parents died." Obviously, his father didn't have a mundane identity so he couldn't get his own account, but Hades had still assumed it was genuinely hers and that he'd maybe just given her money to deposit on occasion. Or something.  
  
"I do. I've been working part-time as a secretary for a local law firm while getting my muggle education in order. The intent was to take classes at a muggle university later on."  
  
Hades raised both of his eyebrows, that was impressive. Muggle education, a double magical apprenticeship, a toddler, and a second baby on the way. Go, Lily! "I'm impressed. That wasn't in your stuff either."  
  
She lowered her eyes to the floor for a moment. "It's a bad idea to shout that kind of information so the masses can hear it, or even just the wrong person. I already have a large target on my back just by being a muggleborn, being married to a pureblood of an Ancient House, and an outspoken woman on Dumbledore's side. You-Know-Who has been trying to kill James and me on three separate occasions and the planned attack on Halloween will make a fourth."  
  
"Still, it's very well done. Even more so when you add all of the pressure of secrecy and knowing you can't really use your mundane education in the magical world. That has to be beyond frustrating since it's so much more difficult and high level compared to the old fashioned curriculum Hogwarts teaches and has taught for centuries now. It's frustrating and annoying."   
  
She gave him a gentle smile but he couldn't help but see the tear tracks down her face instead. "I take it you went back after graduation and got a muggle education as well?"   
  
"I didn't graduate from Hogwarts, but yes, my wife and I got a proper education and then went to college at the same time as we were trying to drag Magical Britain into modern times."   
  
On second thought, maybe he shouldn't have said the first part. Thankfully his father came back down and saved him five minutes later. As he heard his father come down the first step, he interrupted his mother.   
  
"Dad is coming back down, but before he gets here. I'm going to cause a scandal so Vernon will be sent to prison for a long time. You'll have one year to adjust your sister's bad attitude sufficiently or I will ensure she at the very least end up in a cell of her own. If it goes that far, you'll have to make a decision between taking in your nephew, allowing Marge to take him, or send him to an orphanage.   
  
Lily blinked at the abruptness but gave him a determined look. "I'll work on her, I promise. I don't think she's a bad person, but she has an unfortunate lack of self-worth and it has caused her to desperately want to be as normal as possible. It's one of the reasons she married Vernon. His promising career helped as well."   
  
They didn't get further than that as James came into the room looking a little apprehensive as he took in his wife's tear-stained face. "What happened?"   
  
"We needed to discuss something in private, I'll explain later." James clearly didn't like the answer but let it go.   
  
"Baby Hadrian is asleep and Billy is keeping an eye on him." They made some more small talk and then Hades excused himself.   
  
"I have to cut this visit short as I have another appointment tonight, but remember what I've said. Pack and move anything from this cottage you want to keep, starting with anything on the second floor, and don't move anything guests would notice. I don't know if anyone came by between now and Halloween, but it's better to play it safe. Just in case."   
  
A suspicious look from his father and Hades elaborated, "There are people I need to talk to in order to make certain things move forward. The two of you can only do so much. Change takes a lot of people willing to make changes to their lives and attitude. If we're going to make Magical Britain a better place then we need allies and not just the ones who are already sworn to the House of Potter. Although, you should contact them and arrange a meeting to discuss the future."  
  
At that, he got up and his parents followed suit. He explained some more on the way to the door before he graciously thanked them for dinner and left.


	6. Lord Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all of those who have followed this fic, given kudos, and/or taken the time to write a comment. It has been highly appreciated. 
> 
> I'm not really happy with this chapter, but it's gotten really long so I'd better just post it. :)

After walking past the wards around Potter Cottage he apparated to several random places before arriving at the isolated cabin he currently called home. He took a quick shower and dressed in a nice, tailored suit before putting on a cloak made of the finest Acromantula silk over it. He didn't believe in the slightest that the suit would impress the man he was going to meet, but the cloak would.  
  
This meeting could make or break some of his more important plans for the future, but he was gambling on the truth and the man's strong belief in family. As he was standing in front of the mirror that doubled as the entrance to his secret office he straightened his tie and made a half-hearted effort to make his hair behave. In an attempt to tame it he had magically grown it to shoulder length as the weight forced it to not stand up in all directions. It wasn't perfect but at least it made him look like he knew what a comb was, and more importantly, how to use it.  
  
He carefully lifted the hood and placed it so his face was obscured, both by the hood itself but also by the magic the entire cloak was imbued with. Hades needed compliance and given what he looked like it was imperative that wasn't the first impression they got of him.  
  
Satisfied with his cloak and dagger appearance, including an actual, hidden dagger strapped to his left arm in a magically protected sheath, he apparated straight out of the small house and to three random places before he arrived outside the gates of a large Manor that screamed of wealth and prestige. It was clearly old but well maintained. He could feel the magic emanating from both the wards surrounding it and the property itself. The magic was both welcoming and hostile at the same time.  
  
Despite owning it in the future he had never set foot on the property and had instead allowed Hermione to simply raid it of its library and any other books stored there. Then he'd allowed it to get magically mothballed again. His second son had moved in with his family when he turned 30, but somehow all Potter gatherings had happened either at Potter Manor or one of their other estates. This was his first time seeing it and he vaguely wondered how it would measure up to his expectations.  
  
Mentally ordering himself to focus, he walked up the path to the gate and simply waited for it to either open or for a house elf to escort him to his host. Magical homes didn't have doorbells or even door knockers, instead, they used some variety of a detection charm to know when someone wanted to gain entrance to their home. A few minutes passed and then a pop announced the arrival of a house elf on the other side of the gate.  
  
The gate swung open silently and the little creature in front of him squeaked, "Master Black is ready to see you, sir. Please follow Toppy."  
  
"Thank you, Toppy."  
  
The walk up the long path to the Manor was silent and when they entered the opulent home he very deliberately didn't gawk. He'd expected a lot of green and silver along with any number of snake motifs, but everything looked tasteful. The two colors were present but it wasn't an obvious and forceful representation of an obviously Slytherin-oriented family. It was a pleasant surprise.  
  
The little elf brought him to a large office where Lord Black was sitting in an elegant chair behind a large desk, and beside him was, as requested, Sirius Black. Hades smiled inside his hood. So far it was going according to plan.  
  
"Greetings, Lord Black." He made a small, formal bow and the other man inclined his head in reciprocation. Hades then inclined his head politely in greeting to Sirius who returned the gesture. No words were spoken between them.  
  
"Your letter requesting a meeting with myself and my grandson as soon as possible was very vague regarding your intentions. It also lacked a signature."  
  
"It is imperative that my identity remain a secret from both the Dark Lord and the self-proclaimed Light Lord, as well as everyone else. However, in order for me to make my intentions clear, there are certain things I need to reveal, however in order to do so, I need a magically binding oath from both of you that you will never reveal what I say to anyone for any reason. Nor will you reveal my identity to anyone." He calmed his breathing as this was the first crucial point if they refused then this meeting was over.  
  
"You're asking us to take a lot on faith. There is a war raging out there, and what you're asking could destroy the Black Family."  
  
"I know, but it is not my intention to harm either one of you. I'll admit that the death of your son and daughter-in-law would not bother me as I despise zealots of any kind, but to my knowledge, you have not allowed yourself to be branded and your grandson does not share your ideology."  
  
Arcturus Black tensed slightly as he gave Sirius a mild glare but otherwise didn't comment. Hades found it interesting that the Head of House Black didn't defend his son or daughter-in-law, even if he expected Sirius to not care. It said a lot about how far their House had truly fallen.  
  
"So you support Dumbledore?" The question came from his godfather and while Lord Black didn't seem to like the interruption he said nothing to distract from the question.  
  
"No. As I said, I despise zealots. I also despise people who pretend to be something they're not. If you want my reasoning them you need to swear the oath."  
  
They continued back and forth for a while, but in the end, they both swore the oath after he made his own short oath as to not do them harm unless they did anything to him or any of his first.  
  
"We've sworn the oath, now reveal yourself!" He didn't care much for the demand, but it was fair so he rose before lowering his hood and then removing the cloak entirely. Hades' attention was mostly on Arcturus but he didn't miss the shocked expression on Sirius' face nor the gasp when he saw his face. He calmly folded the garment and laid it over the back of the chair right next to his own before retaking his seat and getting comfortable. As he'd expected, his suit was not a welcome sight.  
  
"My name is Hadrian Potter and I'm from the future."  
  
Sirius immediately rose, agitated. "That's not possible! Time-Turners can only go back eight hours at the most, and the real Hadrian is only 15 months old not in his late teens."  
  
"Sit down, Sirius! I didn't use a Time-Turner, and no, I won't tell you how I accomplished it. It's the kind of information that can never be released." Unsurprisingly, the wizard remained standing and just glared at the 'younger' man.  
  
"Look, I'm trying to save the magical world here, including my parents and you. So sit down, and be quiet!"  
  
It took more arguing and finally a direct order from Lord Black before he finally sat down again, clearly upset about the entire situation.  
  
"What do you mean you're trying to save my grandson's life?"  
  
"To make a long story short, in my timeline Voldemort personally killed my parents and Sirius was arrested and thrown in Azkaban for supposedly betraying them. Without a trial. One guess as to who was responsible for the latter."  
  
Both of the Black's looked shocked, although the elder of the two only showed something for a brief moment before he went back to the vaguely disapproving expression he'd had before.  
  
"Right and I got a trial and then?"  
  
"You didn't. You spent the next 12 years in that hellhole before you managed to escape."  
  
"But Dumbledore..."  
  
Hades cut him off, "Dumbledore is the reason you ended up there and he's the reason you didn't get a trial. He's also the reason why your name was never cleared. Can you think of any reason why he would do that?"  
  
Sirius just blinked at him in shock, clearly unable to believe that his leader would ever do something like that to him. A detached part of Hades' mind felt sorry for him, having your opinion of someone you thought to be a great person proven to be so wrong hurt. A lot. He'd been there, felt the painful shock, and nursed the anger for a long time.  
  
And because he just couldn't help himself, he added. "It's all for the greater good, you know."  
  
That got his godfather out of his shock and the man glared at him. "You think this is funny? That the future me spent over a decade with only Dementors for company?"  
  
"Of course not," Hades replied calmly. "But it is the reason Dumbledore gave me when I confronted him with the facts I'd uncovered at the time."  
  
Arcturus interrupted their discussion with a few questions of his own. "Why was Sirius thrown in Azkaban and why did no one in the Black family get him out of there?"  
  
"It's like I said; It was for the 'greater good', or to be more specific it was what was needed at the time to move Dumbledore's plans along." He allowed that to sink in for a few moments before he went on. "As for why no one in the Black family tried to free him, I can only guess."  
  
Lord Black nodded once for him to go on and he did. "My family is currently hiding under the Fidelius Charm and it's a common belief among those who know about it that Sirius is the Secret Keeper. He's not."  
  
Lord Black looked sharply at his grandson, "I was the obvious choice since I'm James' best friend, so we decided I should be the decoy instead so no one would even suspect the real Secret Keeper." He looked at Hades, "The real Secret Keeper betrayed them, didn't they?"  
  
Ignoring the pain in the man's voice he simply nodded. "I've spoken to my parents and I've arranged a new safe place for them to stay. The traitor will be dealt with."  
  
"Which one?" The Lord of the Manor interjected dryly.  
  
"Both, but I meant the Secret Keeper. They'll be exposed as the cowardly rat they are." The latter was said with direct eye contact with his godfather and the man definitely got the hint and nodded a little reluctantly.  
  
"As for my guess why none of you even attempted to get him out of Azkaban; Dumbledore announced the day after his capture that Sirius was a Death Eater and had been a spy for a number of years. He also claimed that Sirius was Voldemort's right-hand wizard and that he was tired of hiding. Apparently, my family's murder was supposed to be his big coming out as Dark party."  
  
Arcturus Black gave a snort at that, "Sirius would never harm that blasted Blood Traitor or his family. Anyone with common sense knows that."  
  
"And yet, neither you, his parents, nor any other member of his family did anything to come to his aid."  
  
The pain in Sirius' grey eyes was plain for all of them to see, but neither commented. "My guess is that his parents wrote him off as a lost cause years ago and saw this as an opportunity to regain favor with the Dark Faction. As for you," he looked at the Head of the Black Family, "I don't know what you were thinking. Allowing your grandson to rot in Azkaban effectively ended the Black family in the male line."  
  
That part had never made any sense to him and by the time it even occurred to him Sirius had been dead for years, so he couldn't ask. With no portrait or even a ghost, he had nothing to go on. He and Hermione had plenty of theories and speculations, but no facts.  
  
"If Sirius hadn't made me his Heir then the Black Estate would've gone to Draco Malfoy, something I'm certain both Orion and Walburga approved of given that family's alliances and loyalty to the Dark Tosser. It-"  
  
Lord Black abruptly cut him off, "You made the Potter Scion your Heir?!" There was a dangerous look in the old man's grey eyes and a tone to his voice that demanded a prompt and proper explanation. One that better make absolute sense or there would be hell to pay.  
  
Sirius swallowed and his eyes widened as if caught in the direct line of a Killing Curse before he sat up straight and his face closed off in the proper neutral expression expected of all Purebloods in the old Houses. Hades looked between the Black's, but his main attention was on his godfather. This was more than just allowing a Half-Blood to become the Heir of not one but two Ancient Houses. He was definitely missing something important, something that enraged and maybe even humiliated the wizard in question. And he, Hades, had somehow unintentionally put him in a position where he had to admit to whatever it was. Crap.  
  
"I am allowed to name whomever I wish to be my Heir," Sirius replied in a mostly neutral tone, even if it was slightly clipped.  
  
"Yes, grandson, you are, but why would you name someone else's child as your Heir? You're still young, and there are a few suitable matches for you still available. There are even some unsuitable ones that would be preferable to the Potter Heir." Hades chose not to be offended as he had gone into this meeting expecting a lot worse, but he began speaking before he could stop himself.  
  
"If you're trying to hint that the Black Estate should stay in the Black Family, then I will remind you that my paternal grandmother was born a Black from the main branch, specifically she was your younger sister. Narcissa and her sisters are all daughters from a cadet branch, so as far as being closely related I have a better claim. A claim that is strengthened by your grandson accepting the honor of being my magically sworn godfather."  
  
Of course, he knew what the actual issue was, but he was more than ready to argue his case if it came down to that.  
  
"Quiet," the 'elder' of them said before turning back to his grandson. "Why did you choose an Heir from another House rather than wait to father your own?" This time it was an order from the Head of the Black Family to his Heir's Heir. Sirius had no choice but to answer or his family magic would retaliate, painfully.  
  
Sirius's back was so straight it looked painful and while his body and most of his face showed nothing, his eyes were another story. They were an angry stormy grey he'd never seen before and the silence stretched uncomfortably. Yet, Hades chose to remain silent, both because this was a matter between the two other men but also because he'd been wondering about this question himself for decades.  
  
Finally, after he got himself under complete control, Sirius relented and replied in an absolutely neutral voice, "I can't have children. Father and Mother used the Cruciatus Curse and other Dark Curses on me too many times. When they realized what they'd done, Mother blasted me off the Family Tree, and Father attempted to kill me with that Curse claiming I was too weak to be a proper Black. That is the real reason I ran away." He paused for a few seconds before he added, "Lord Potter and James knew about it and approved my request."  
  
The time-traveler blinked several times in shock, of all the reasons they had theorized about in the future that had not been a contender or even on either of their minds. Yes, one of their main theories had been an inability to have children, or an unwillingness, but they'd assumed it was related to all the inbreeding the purebloods insisted on partaking in, not an extreme level of abuse. It made Sirius's Dumbledore-enforced stay at Grimmauld Place even worse.  
  
The Dursley's had been horrible to him, but not even Dudley had done anything to his privates. If he was honest with himself, then his cousin had never even tried to kick him in that area. In order for the Cruciatus Curse to cause sterility, they'd had to either aim it directly at their son's privates or somewhere close on a regular basis over a longer period of time. Or it could be that they held him under for a long time every day for weeks. That thought alone was beyond horrifying.  
  
While Hades' immediate reaction had been to compare Sirius' answer to his and Hermione's guesses in the future, Arcturus' first reaction had been to abruptly rise and quite clearly work through some kind of breathing exercise in order to remain calm. Once that was accomplished he began pacing the spacious office. Sirius did a very convincing imitation of a statute, he didn't even look like he was breathing.  
  
Both of them followed the Head of House with their eyes as he went from one end of the room to the other before he smoothly turned and retraced his own steps before repeating the process all over again. Neither of them liked it when Arcturus' right hand was out of view, but thankfully he didn't reach for his wand at any point.  
  
Belatedly, a string of laws came rushing back to him. There were no laws in Magical Britain specifically against abusing children. Mainly due to the consensus that it didn't happen and therefore made them better than the Mundanes. Child abuse was supposed to be rare and be restricted to verbal abuse only, but while Sirius had strongly hinted it had been physical, or rather that's how a young Hades had understood it, it now became clear they had been magically abusive.  
  
Which made it strange that Sirius hadn't defended him more and demanded that he didn't have to go back to the Dursley's. But then again, Sirius was a pureblood, there was a good chance he didn't believe that physical abuse was as bad as magical abuse. Or maybe he had, but no one told Hadrian about it. Who knew, they had never really discussed it, and anytime they had come near the topic someone, usually Mrs. Weasley or one of her family members had interrupted and distracted them with something.  
  
Suddenly, Lord Black turned abruptly half-way across the room and faced his grandson. "I will deal with my son and his despicable wife. You will not speak about this to anyone. Neither of you will utter a word."  
  
Hades gave a curt nod, but Sirius gave a verbal, "Yes, Grandfather. As you wish."  
  
The wizard retook his seat and said, "Please, continue with the prior topic of conversation."  
  
"Right. Dumbledore and his many and varied manipulations of everyone around him." He could probably have spoken about the topic for weeks if not months if given the chance, but he needed to be much more precise and succinct tonight.  
  
"Inbetween my parents getting killed and Sirius getting unlawfully thrown in Azkaban I was illegally placed on the doorstep of my maternal Aunt and her husband. Neither Dumbledore nor either of the other people who were present that night appeared to think that leaving me there was a bad idea. Dumbledore put a letter in amongst my blankets rather than take the time to speak to my relatives and then everyone left. Nevermind that this was at the beginning of November, I hadn't been to a Healer or a doctor, and I could've frozen to death. I was also able to walk."    
  
"He left you with Petunia?" The incredulity made him raise his voice and in response received a warning look from his grandfather that he didn't even seem to notice. "She hates magic and he knows it!"  
  
"Believe me, I know. I had the misfortune of staying there for the next decade and he forced me to go back there every summer until I came off age."  
  
"He was given custody of you?"  
  
"He got the Wizengamot to seal my parents Wills claiming they were a danger to the magical world, and then claimed custody of me. No one questioned it and no one seemed to care that I disappeared from the Magical World despite Dumbledore living at Hogwarts. The magic-raised are too gullible and too willing to believe whatever Dumbledore and the Ministry tell them and the mundane-raised doesn't know nearly enough to ask questions let alone the right ones. That travesty was just one of the many, many problems with the magical world."  
  
"So you're in the past to fix it and you're here why? You must know the Black Family is aligned to the Dark, my grandson excluded."  
  
"Being Darkly aligned, being evil, and following the Psychopathic Tosser are three very different things. I know for a fact that you have refused the Dark Mark which means you are not entirely in his camp, but let me tell you a story and then you can tell me if you are still one of his supporters."  
  
Lord Black nodded and replied, "Very well, tell your story, but it won't change the superiority of the purebloods."  
  
"Pureblood delusions of superiority is another kettle of hubris, but nevermind that for now."  
  
Arcturus narrowed his eyes but remained silent. "I don't know how much of this you might know or might have possibly inferred over the years, but I am 100% certain Sirius doesn't have a clue."  
  
Hades got more comfortable in his hard chair, and why were visitors chairs nearly always uncomfortable? It seemed to be almost universal.  
  
"At some point in 1925, a then 17-year-old pureblood witch by the name of Merope Gaunt began giving the wealthy son of a local mundane aristocrat a love potion in order to get him to notice her. They eloped to London in early 1926. She became pregnant with his child and at some point later stopped giving her husband the love potion and he soon left her, returning to his wealthy and snobbish parents. The young, expectant mother was then left on her own as her husband had no interest in her or the child they were expecting.  
  
"She gave birth to a son in a Mundane orphanage and lived only long enough to name him Tom after his father and Marvolo after her own father, and then she died. Tom Riddle Junior grew up in that poor orphanage and was visited by the then Deputy Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore around his 11th birthday. During the meeting, he accidentally revealed to Dumbledore that he was a Parselmouth.  
  
"Arriving at Hogwarts he was sorted into Slytherin with everyone believing he was a Mundane-Born. Later on, he was selected as a Slytherin Prefect and he was selected as the Head Boy in his Seventh Year. His grades were excellent and he was well-liked and respected, but all of his seven years at Hogwarts was plagued by increasingly cruel accidents, none of which could be traced back to him, of course.  
  
"At some point, he got an interest in anagrams and began experimenting with it as he had discovered that his father was, in fact, a Mundane rather than the wizard he'd believed him to be. In August 1943 he murdered his father and paternal grandparents for not being magical and for abandoning him and his mother. Not wanting to keep the name of a Mundane he was looking around for something else to call himself. The result he decided on was this one."  
  
And at this Hadrian waved his wand and wrote TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE in capital flaming letters before giving his wand a second wave and they rearranged themselves to spell I AM LORD VOLDEMORT instead, causing Sirius to gasp in shock.  
  
"He-Who-Must-Be-Named is a muggleborn?"  
  
"No, he's the Half-Blood son of a near Latent and a Mundane." He smirked, "but if you went to the Ministry and looked up Tom Riddle you'd find him listed as a Muggleborn."  
  
Sirius turned to his grandfather and asked incredulously, "Did you know about this?"  
  
"I did not, and I must confess myself surprised." Keeping his own counsel he turned to Hades and added, "Can you prove any of this?"  
  
"I can prove that Tom Riddle exists both in the Magical and the Mundane worlds, but I won't be able to prove he is Voldemort until he's dead. Unless he makes a confession himself, preferably in public."    
  
His godfather frowned, "How would his death prove he is the Dark Lord?"  
  
"Both the Ministry and Gringotts have magically enchanted documents keeping track of everyone's death. When, where, and how it happens. Those documents would prove that Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as Voldemort, died at a specific time and place. With no one else to account for the random name, even the inbred incompetents at the Ministry have to admit to who he is. No matter how much they don't want to do it.  
  
"Of course, access to these documents are highly restricted to the point almost no one knows about their existence, and most of them have no idea of where to even begin looking for them. Attempting to gain access to the copies at Gringotts is a whole other headache unless you have an exceptionally good reason for wanting to see them."  
  
Ignoring the back and forth, Lord Black asked, "The Dark Lord has lied about his Blood Status, claiming he wishes to permanently remove all of the filth from our world, and all this time he has been one of the filth himself?" Hades nodded even if he didn't like the wording.  
  
"Think about it, there isn't actually that many purebloods in Britain. Out of maybe 90,000 people, there are 30,000 purebloods at most and that's probably pushing it a lot. The greater bulk of our population is Half-Bloods due to Purebloods wisening up and marrying First-Gens, the half-blooded descendants of First-Gens, or even Mundanes. Of course, most First-Gens either marry other First-Gens or they go back to the Mundane World and marry a Mundane. Add in the ridiculous 'rule' about only having one child, especially if the first one is a boy, and each Pureblood generation is cut at least in half."  
  
Arcturus had a contemplative look on his face. "To put in plainly, Lord Black, the Purebloods are dying out and you're all too arrogant to even see it. You're too focused on the supposed purity of your blood and how you believe it makes you better than everyone else. You can't see that British Purebloods are becoming increasingly weaker magically. Every generation has more problems performing basic spells and as a result, the Hogwarts curriculum is lowered.  
  
"Back in my time I found the original coursework for Hogwarts and I assure you, the vast majority of Purebloods would not have made it past Third Year if you had even made it that far. You're so weak and your egos are so big, and I guarantee you it won't end well. Give it another few hundred years, without my timely intervention, and you'll be too small of a minority to keep your power and then the half-bloods will take over."  
  
"Despite the Dark Lord-" Lord Black corrected himself, "Despite Riddle's unfortunate lineage, he is furthering the Pureblood Cause and he is cleansing the Magical World of the filth polluting it. Despite your supposed facts, we are superior to you and all those of lesser birth."  
  
Hades gave him a look of pity he didn't try particularly hard to hide. "There's nothing supposed about it. In my past, your future, there was a mandatory nation-wide test of all the magical people in Britain. Before the test, everyone had to fill out a questionnaire which included stating their Blood Status, how far back their direct magical lineage went, and if anyone in their direct lineage had married a close family member. The test was taken using Anti-Cheating Quills, with witches and wizards overseeing the process, and an Oath had to be sworn before they began the written portion and another Oath had to be sworn after the magical test to ensure that it remained truthful and there was no cheating involved in any part of the process."  
  
Only Sirius seem to realize where he was going with this and said, more resigned than anything else, "The Pureblood Faction had the lowest scores on the magical power test, didn't they?"  
  
"Yes, and it wasn't a minor difference either. There was a clear drop between the First-Gens and their descendants, and Purebloods and those Half-Bloods who kept intermarrying with Purebloods and people of similar family history to their own. In all cases where a Pureblood had married a First-Gen or a Mundane, their child's magical ability went way up."  
  
Arcturus Black was actively glaring at him now, "Prove it."  
  
"As the Head of the Black family, you have access to the Magical Records of the entire family, correct? Including those who have been disowned within your lifetime?"  
  
He nodded curtly, "They are rarely accessed by anyone, but yes, if I were so inclined I could espy them. Why do you ask?"  
  
"If you were to take a look at those records you'd see that you and your generation are magically weaker than the generation before you, and your son and his generation are even weaker, and Sirius and his generation even more so. But what would be of even greater interest to you is the generation after that, specifically the magical power levels of Nymphadora Tonks and Draconis Malfoy, the children of Andromeda Tonks nee Black and Narcissa Malfoy nee Black."  
  
"Surely young Draco is more powerful than that Half-Blood offspring of Andromeda's." Lord Black interjected dryly, clearly certain of the boy's place in the world.  
  
"They're not even close, and there is no doubt what-so-ever that Draco is the weaker one." Hades ensured direct eye-contact with the other man, "Did you know that Nymphadora is a Metamorphmagus?"  
  
Hades had the pleasure of watching the wizard in front of him losing his composure for a few moments before he abruptly sat up straight. "You're certain she's a Metamorphmagi? There is no doubt?"  
  
"There's no doubt, Grandfather. I've seen her change several times, both partially and completely." Sirius cut in before Hades had a chance to respond.  
  
"As have I, and in the future, she passed the ability on to her child proving that new blood is essential to keeping magic alive and bringing back old outbred abilities. And yes, you can thank Andromeda's First-Gen husband for that."  
  
Sirius gave a smile. "I like Ted. He's a good bloke and keeps Andy down to Earth. He's also taught James and I some Muggle stuff so James could impress Lily with it later." The latter caused him to grin in memory of something or other Hades no doubt knew nothing about.  
  
Arcturus didn't seem to have heard a word of the by-play and spoke softly to himself. "There's a Metamorph in the family again..." Coming back to the present, he turned his attention to his Grandson. "Why haven't you informed me of this?"  
  
The Animagus blinked, "Why would I? We haven't spoken in years, the last time I had any contact with you was when I sent the obligatory N.E.W.T.'s results after graduation. You didn't even bother to send me a standardized reply, so why would I contact you to tell you that Dora is a Metamorph? Especially since you disowned Andy and declared that she and any descendants she might have were never to be discussed in your presence."  
  
The green-eyed time traveler raised a black eyebrow and commented, "That's harsh."  
  
Neither of the Black men paid him any mind, however. "You are aware the Metamorph ability used to be common in our ancestors, and as such you should've had the common sense to inform me when you became aware it has reappeared. I must speak with Andromeda regarding this."  
  
"Be that as it may, we have a visitor and I'm sure he didn't come here to discuss Cousin Dora."  
  
"I didn't," Hades cut in before they could really get into the brewing argument. "Let's get back to the point, namely that new blood is necessary for a healthy human being and for said human beings to have healthy magic."  
  
If Lord Black was annoyed by having his line of questioning redirected he didn't show it. "The Potter family were Purebloods until your father decided to degenerate himself and the Potter family by marrying a Mudblood."  
  
Hades narrowed his eyes, "Don't use that word. Not regarding my mother and not to describe anyone else either. It's insulting and highly unbecoming." When the Head of the House chose to only incline his head in vague acceptance, he continued. "As for my family being Purebloods, yes, I am aware of that. However, unlike most of the British Purebloods, they deliberately chose to seek brides in other countries every three or four generations in order to keep business with foreign people going strong. While their intent wasn't pure it did ensure the family received new blood every 60 to 80 years, which in turn made the family among the most magically powerful of the British Pureblood families since they didn't keep repeating the same family lines over and over again.  
  
"It's just one of the many reasons why the Potter's are so well respected in the community, particularly since the families they married into were all well-known Pureblood families so no one could contest the purity of their blood."  
  
"Until your father and his unwise choice of a bride." The comment was a snide one, but he chose to ignore it.  
  
"My grandparents approved of the union and they even managed to convince my mother to have a proper magical ceremony, rather than what is so common nowadays given the Ministry's approach to rituals. So, yes, Lord Black, my parents' marriage is blessed by Lady Magic Herself, so who are you to argue the propriety of her ancestry if Lady Magic doesn't mind?"  
  
For the second time, Hades had the pleasure of watching Lord Black lose his composure for a few moments and in his peripheral view, he saw Sirius grin wide and amused. Of course he'd known about it since he'd been James' best wizard, but apparently, it was something else he hadn't felt inclined to tell his grandfather even if James was a Black once removed. He really needed to ask his parents if he could watch the memory in a Pensive one day, as the accounts he'd read made the entire wedding sound absolutely amazing.  
  
"Think about it, my parents are happy and in love, meanwhile your son is miserable and married to a hag. Their belief in Riddle got their youngest and favorite son killed, and your son ensured that the Black family is extinct in the male line. Despite everything that happened in the future the Potter Family was thriving when I went back in time, but to my knowledge, the only other Black descendants, other than me and mine was Nymphadora's descendants. There were no Pureblooded Black's. Sirius and the Black sisters were all dead. You were dead, your son and his wife were dead. Your brother was dead. Both of your sisters were dead. There was no one left of the so-called great Black family."  
  
He was way off track with this entire meeting and if he had any intention of getting out of here anytime soon then he needed to get onto the topic he was here to actually discuss. But before he could re-direct the conversation Sirius grinned as he asked, "The Malfoy's were all dead, too?"  
  
"Very dead," Hades assured him. "All three of them were sent through the Veil of Death for their actions during the Second Blood War. Given all the evidence against them, they were unable to buy their way out of their death sentence or even to downgrade it to Azkaban."  
  
"The Second Blood War?"  
  
"Yes, but never mind that. I'm going to ensure it doesn't happen again."  
  
He rallied his thoughts and jumped into it. "What I need you for, Lord Black is a political alliance. There are laws I need to get approval for and quite a few other laws I need to have removed in order to make Magical Britain great again."  
  
"All at the cost of the Pureblood Elite?" The other man asked in a voice so dry it could've competed with the sand in the Sahara Desert.  
  
"At the cost of the bigotry, prejudice, blackmail, and various other unsavory 'deals' that are used to rule us.  
  
"Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to make Purebloods marry Half-Bloods, First Generation Magic Users, or even Mundanes, but something needs to be done to get new blood. And I fear it might already be too late."  
  
"Why would it be too late, and too late for what, exactly?"  
  
Hadrian looked at his godfather, it was obvious the man was trying to keep up, but Hadrian's clear disapproval of Dumbledore was probably stopping the man from trusting him. He would have a private conversation with Sirius some other day, away from his Head of House.  
  
"Too late to convince the Purebloods in other countries to marry into any of the British families. They have standards, and unlike the ones in Britain, they're often taught about more than just magical subjects in school. This includes the dangers of inbreeding, not just because of physical deformities and genetic diseases, but also regarding the lower magical ability it causes due to magic needing to keep the body healthy. For proof of lowered magical ability just look into the Black Family Magical Records, and you'll get all the proof you need.  
  
"Foreign magicals have standards and despite what magicals in Britain think, we are not at the top of the hierarchy. In fact, we haven't been anywhere near the top in centuries because of the Purebloods, your inbreeding, and your refusal to move with the times. But I'll get back to that some other time."  
  
Sirius drew a hand over his face, "What are you going to do to achieve this? You know the Purebloods won't just roll over and take the word of a stranger than their traditions and practices are wrong and that it's causing them to die out."   
  
"Of course not," Hadrian replied calmly, "I have plans and failsafes in place in order to fix Magical Britain. Some are already in play and some won't go into effect for a while, but I'll get there. With or without the help of the House of Black."  
  
"Does any of these plans expose Riddle for the fraud he is?"  
  
Hades smirked at Arcturus Black, "Naturally. He's the perfect example to prove my point."   
  
The other man blinked in confusion. "He's the perfect example of what, exactly?"  
  
"To prove that by adding new blood to an old family, the children of those unions become much more powerful than their parents. It doesn't matter if people support Riddle or if they oppose him, everyone agrees that he is very powerful. The same can be said for Albus Dumbledore and his brother, Aberforth."   
  
"Aberforth Dumbledore is much weaker magically than his older brother."   
  
"True, but he is still more powerful than the average Pureblood."  
  
"What about both of your examples supposedly being evil? That is what you believe Dumbledore is, evil. Right?" His godfather looked unhappy about even asking those questions, but he was learning quickly.   
  
Hadrian gave a shallow nod, "True. Well, mostly. I don't believe Albus Dumbledore is the same kind of evil as Riddle. He genuinely believes what he's doing is right and that he is the one who decides what is good and what isn't." He sighed, "The road to Hell and all that."   
  
Lord Black stared at him and clearly ignoring most of what he'd just said, asked. "The road to Hell and all that?"   
  
Hades raised an eyebrow. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. It's a proverb from the 1150s or sometime around that time period. A common interpretation of the saying is that wrongdoings or evil actions are often masked by good intentions.   
  
"Another meaning of the phrase is that individuals may have the intention to do good actions but nevertheless fail to take action. This inaction may be due to procrastination, laziness or other subversive vices. As such, the saying is an admonishment that a good intention is meaningless unless followed through. Dumbledore is very much guilty of this. He makes promises and then easily break them when he's gotten what he wants.  
  
"Moral certainty can be used to justify the harm done by failing policies and actions. Those with good intentions believe their practices are good for the group or in this case our society; it is self-evident to them. They justify collateral damage in the belief they do it for the greater good. The Nazi concentration camps were created to hold so-called "racially undesirable elements" of German society. The harm done is clearly seen, and acknowledged, but is written off as a 'price worth paying'. It's the same with Purebloods and their treatment of First-Gens."  
  
It was clear to him that spending over a century with Hermione had caused him to get at least some of her need to answer questions and elaborate on them. He needed to get back on topic again.  
  
"My point is that Dumbledore has been hailed as a great leader for so long that he has convinced himself that all the hype is true. He's convinced that he's the second coming of Merlin and that it gives him the right to rule, or at least to be the puppeteer behind the 'throne'. He no longer sees the individuals, just the larger picture he wants to see.   
  
"Due to accidentally killing his sister when he was in his teens he's convinced that any killing is wrong, but there's some kind of twisted logic involved where it's somehow acceptable that his followers die at the wand of their enemies as long as it furthers Dumbledore's plans. Meanwhile, the perpetrators get chance after chance to 'redeem' themselves because he believes that it will somehow redeem him of his own crime.   
  
"Instead of children learning rules and structure at Hogwarts they learn they can get away with just a detention and maybe a stern talking to, but even if it's an actual crime the DMLE won't be called in, they'll just get detention and there's nothing there to stop them from committing more crimes. Once they graduate it's bribery and blackmail or simply proclaiming their pureblood status and they'll get a slap on the wrist and then they just carry on."   
  
Hades stopped and took a deep breath. "My apologies, this had frustrated me for a long time."  
  
"Purebloods are superior to Half-Bloods and Muggleborns, Mister Potter. This is a fact, and as such we are above the law as long as we uphold the Pureblood Code of Conduct. Blood Traitors, of course, are not included." Both Hades and Sirius rolled their eyes at that comment.   
  
"No one is above the law and taking the blind eye approach to who should or shouldn't follow the law is the reason why we're in the middle of a war right now. Think about it, Riddle isn't just killing First-Gens and Half-Bloods. He's also killing Purebloods, including his own followers. Your grandson, Regulus Black is a prime example." In his peripheral view, he saw Sirius tense at the mention of his little brother.  
  
Turning to his godfather, he remarked, "He changed sides, you know. That's why he was killed."   
  
Both of the other men in the room stared at him in open shock, Sirius' jaw even fell open slightly. "Come again?"   
  
"He'd been having doubts for some time, but when Riddle asked him to borrow a House Elf the situation escalated to a point where he realized he could no longer follow that monster." He only had to wait for a few moments before the inevitable question came.   
  
Lord Black found his voice first. "Why would a House Elf change his opinion? They're even further beneath us than Muggleborns."   
  
Rather than answer the wizard, Hadrian looked straight at Sirius. "The Elf in question was Kreacher."   
  
"I've never understood why he liked him so much, but the Elf was actually upset when Regulus died."  
  
"It wasn't just your brother's death, but never mind that." As the true Purebloods they both were they dropped the subject since it was 'only' a House Elf they were talking about. "He changed his mind about Riddle, even if I'm not sure if he still believed that Pureblood crap or not."   
  
"I am going to assume what he found wasn't Riddle's true identity, so what could he possibly have done to have made the boy change sides?"  
  
"Let's just say that Riddle decided that he wanted to achieve immortality by any means necessary and that the consequences of his actions were deemed acceptable to him."  
  
Sirius looked confused but his grandfather looked contemplative again before a thought hit him and judging by the conclusions he came to they were unacceptable to him as well. "He didn't. Tell me he didn't create one of Herpo the Foul's abominations."   
  
Hades merely nodded, before he added, "He made more than one, and I know where all of them are. But I need your help to get one of them."   
  
"That's what got Regulus killed, wasn't it?" Sirius asked as he'd caught up to where this was going, "He got his hands on one of the Horcruxes and it's at Grimmauld Place because he was unable to destroy it."  
  
"Correct. I need it so I can destroy it along with the others, but I don't have access to your parents home, and I'd rather not break in."  
  
Sirius gave an un-aristocratic snort. "Smart move."  
  
"I'll get the abomination. What is it?"   
  
He gave the Head of the Black Family a slightly suspicious look but gave the information nonetheless. "It's a silver locket with an ornate serpentine green 'S' on the front." Off the other man's narrowed eyes he added, "Yes, it belonged to Salazar Slytherin, and it was in the Gaunt Family until Merope sold it to be able to eat while she was pregnant."    
  
"Do you know where it is or should I just order the Elf to fetch it?"   
  
"It's in the room with the Black Family Tapestry in one of the showcases there, but just asking Kreacher might be easier and faster."   
  
Arcturus Black nodded in acceptance, "Very well, you will return here in two days and we'll continue this discussion. I will have retrieved the locket by then." He rose and Sirius and Hades rose with him.   
  
They finalized their plans and said their farewells, and then Hades was shown out of the manor and back to the gate by Toppy the House Elf.  
  
As he apparated away from Black Manor he couldn't help but think that the meeting had both gone better and worse than he'd expected. The sudden willingness to help with the Horcrux was a little suspicious, but there wasn't really much he could do about it. He just hoped that Arcturus followed his advise and checked the Magical Records so he could see the magical decline of the Black Family himself.   
  
There was still the issue of trying to get Lord Black to become a political ally, but there was only so much he could do if the other wizard wasn't willing to play along.


End file.
